The games ended yesterday for JD and I as we finished the regatta in 11th and today’s medal race only included the top 10 boats in the fleet.

I could go on a race by race re-cap of what happened but basically when the wind was 10kts or above we were slow, 8kts and under the boat was a complete weapon.

It’s been a long week. JD and I went for it, we measured in our light air boat, sails and gear package. The weather forecast was mainly for light breeze with the chance of 1 to 2 days of breeze during our regatta (which our boat struggles in because it is optimized for the light wind as we have seen in over 40 days of training here this summer and 10 years of wind and weather data we figured the odds were in our favor). Well, it was windy for 7 races (we struggled in each one of them) and in the 3 light air races we had a 2,4,4.

Mark Pickel and Coach Rodney Hagebols built us a fantastic boat that did and performed exactly how we wanted, but the wind gods were not in our corner this week. A huge thanks to Mark and Rodney for basically dedicating their lives to this project and the boat came out beautifully. The passion that went into building these boats is something to be applauded. Pure craftsmanship. If you can’t tell, I am still totally blown away by the work ethic of Mark and Rodney. The BEST. Period. They are two of my best friends, we get on each other’s cases, but it’s out of competitiveness, nothing personal just pushing each other to achieve greatness. It may not have ended the way both of us wanted but we nearly died trying.

My thoughts on the entire event.

What an experience. Walking in the opening ceremony in front of 90,000 screaming fans, the media, the billions of people watching on tv, the people I met, the contacts I made was truly priceless. I can’t put into words how I have grown as an athlete and as a person from this entire experience.

I just finished watching the medal race in the Star Class (my class) where we saw GBR take gold, BRA take silver and SWE bronze. It’s bitter sweet, these guys are all my best friends in the world and I am VERY happy for them. On the flip side I am extremely jealous, they have what I want …a medal! It’s a hard pill to swallow knowing how close we were and how hard we worked but yet how far away in reality. We worked maybe harder then anyone else in this fleet, spent hours working on weaknesses, countless hours going over data from boat designers, sail designs, photos you name it we spent hours and hours on everything. To come up short is a hard thing to comprehend and it still hasn’t fully sunk in that its over.. for now.

People have been saying to me how proud of us they are and how great it was we made it to the Games. For me for my life it’s never been about just making it, in anything I do I always want to be the best, to win in any athletic competition any business deal I am involved with ANYTHING, and to make it this far and come up short I feel like I have let my teammate John Dane down (who will never get a chance for another medal) to all my fans out there (who send me hundreds of emails (I promise I will try to respond to them all but it’s been hard getting through them all) my coaches Hans Wallen, Rodney Hagebols, Steve Erickson (you guys have challenged me in many different ways on and off the water).

Rodney I am not sure if I could of made it this far without your knowledge about life and your approach to everything you do. Your attitude and outlook on life is something that I strive to become. Hansy my hansy, it’s been a great 3 years and I consider you one of my best friends, your knowledge of sailing and your abilities as a coach are some of the best on this planet and again I would not be where I am in my sailing career without you. Steve “Wonder” Erickson your total dedication and your total focus never give up attitude and your ability to see the good in every situation has made me a better person. I am able to look at things from all different angles after hanging with the three of you. JD I am not sure where to begin, it’s been a fantastic journey, one I am sure neither of us will ever forget and one that no one outside our core group of teammates, tuning partners, coaches and your daughter will ever understand (and they shouldn’t even try, they won’t come close to getting it). What you have achieved on and off the water has set an example for many people. I am proud to have been a part of the journey with you and I consider you a great friend, but the one thing I am most thankful from JD would have to be the opportunity he has given me on and off the water. He has never given me anything except an opportunity and for this I am forever indebted.

To my parents
Mom, I don’t think I can express my thanks and appreciation for everything you have done for me in my life, you drove me around on my paper route at 5 am to make sure I was at the ice rink for hockey practice at 7. I am not sure how many parents would do that for their kids. To my father the best gift you have ever given me was you always let me be Austin, not someone you wanted me to be. You never bailed me out of trouble and looking back on those lessons it helped me become who I am today. My wife, my best friend Sally, this hasn’t been easy sometimes but you have always been my biggest fan, my biggest supporter and all this success wouldn’t have been possible with out you. I love you all.

To my friends, family and fans
I love you all, you have supported me in the great times, you stuck by me when I didn’t think I could go on you motivated me to be great. Paul and Val Erickson – I love you guys! You have taken me in 10 years ago and I value every moment we hang out, your wisdom is priceless. Dodie Siben your words have inspired me to do things I thought not possible. Your a great friend.

What’s next?
I am not sure, but I can tell you this the future is bright, I have gotten a few offers to write a book, I guess the people over at NBC like my style so we will see where all this leads. I miss Wall Street, so I will be looking at a few offers in that field, I love sailing, but I need a break….. I am thinking about putting a RC44 team together so still actively seeking sponsorship for this next great adventure. But above all I am going to work on being a better husband and spending more time with my wife, hopefully starting a family is around the corner.
All very exciting times.

In closing, I want to thank ALL of you out there you have all had a tremendous impact on my life in one way or another, for those of you who did not believe in me I really thank you for the extra motivation to wake up and beat you on and off the water.

This adventure is done and to quote my friend and mentor Paul Cayard, “The richest people on this planet are the ones with the greatest life experiences”. If this is true, I am already a billionaire.

Respectfully yours,

Austin

It’s the end of day two here in Qingdao. John Dane and I are in first place (Gold Medal) after 3 races.

It was a good day today with a score line of 2 and 4 (bit of a bummer as that 4 should have been a 2, but we got a bit tangled up with the tornados who were finishing at the same time).

It has been a long day on the water. I am a bit crispy even after applying 2 rounds of sun lube I am feeling a bit over cooked today.

This racing is very tight and very stressful. I think I may have aged 20 years in the last 2 days. Hopefully by the end of the regatta I won’t look like I am 70 years old or something…

My mom and dad along with my good buddy Paul Erickson are all here (Sally has been here since the 7th of August). It’s really great having them here to share this experience with them, after all I owe all of my success to them.

I am tired and I don’t have much energy to put much effort into this update, but the standings for the top 3 boats are

1 – USA
2 – NZL
3 – POR

Two races tomorrow and it’s supposed to be windy (low pressure moving through the area) This might be the only weakness with our (P-Star boat) is the upper wind range so we need to get through tomorrow with some good finishes and live to fight another day.

Regattas like this you need to not get to high or to low mentally. It’s a long week and its wacky racing no matter how deep you are in the fleet never give up. This is key going forward….
Some of the other top teams have had a few bad races so its time to put the gas pedal down and turn the screws a bit more…

I will send another update after tomorrow’s races.

later

Austin

It’s been an unbelievable few days in Beijing. First off, the opening ceremony was something I will take to the grave. This experience is something no one, not even the most gifted writer could explain properly. I will do my best to depict the experience but this will still not do the actual event justice. Here it goes.

JD and I arrived on Thursday, August 7th from Qingdao. Sally and her brothers and sisters also arrived the same day. That evening, JD had dinner with George H. W. Bush and Peter Ueberroth (head of the USOC). Really cool experience!! After he finished, we met at the MPC for a quick interview with the Today Show. I think many of you saw the clip seen (based on the amount of emails you have sent me saying how sexy I am on tv…).

I woke up bright and early on August 8th, the USOC sent a car to pick me up and took me to the Olympic Village. WOW! I have done many things in my life that warrant the word cool I am living the dream, but this was by far and away the coolest thing I have EVER done in my life.

I hooked up with my US Sailing Teammates and started walking around the village taking it all in, people watching, star gazing and just totally experiencing the village life! The first place I went was the dining hall. This place was HUGE! I think you could fit four football fields under this one roof. It had every kind of food you could imagine. It even had a McDonalds in there (I never ate there, but LeBron James, & Carmelo Anthony were eating a Big Mac after opening ceremonies)! My first star sighting was Amanda Beard (the swimmer, I got a quick picture with her!!).

Next, I bumped into Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks (he is playing for Germany here). I said hello and he couldn’t have been nicer!! Then it hit me I saw my idol from the other side of the room I could pick him out of a crowd, I nearly dropped my food try… It was George Hincapie (cyclist on ALL of Lance Armstrongs winning Tour teams). I went up to him and introduced myself and just like ALL the magazines say he might of been the nicest guys I have ever met, he even sat down with me and chatted about the recent Tour de France he competed in two weeks ago and showed me his road rash from his 40 mph crash while going down the famed Aples de Huez… I ran into a few of my wrestling friends I had met in Chicago back in May and saw a few of my water polo buddies…

At 1645 I started getting dressed for the opening ceremony, 1700 downstairs to walk over to the USA Team building to meet and gather with all the other team USA members.
We were all driven over to the fencing hall where only the USA team was and lo and behold our President G.W Bush was there to give us a pep talk. The President was there with Laura and his father G.H.W. Bush (I met them all and even had my photo taken with them all – plus a picture with the President’s daughter!).

After his speech we mingled with the other athletes and I met EVERYONE on the basketball team!! I got pictures with my favorite NBA super stars Kobe Bryant, LaBron James, D Wade, CP3 Carlos Boozer, Jason Kid, even Coach K posed for a quick snap shot with me!!!

I also I got a photo with Freddy Adu the USA Soccer Phenom and Tyson Gay was a really cool person!!. ALL were the nicest guys… The NBA stars were very good sports and took time to talk to all of us. It’s really amazing how famous those guys are. Kobe is by far and away the biggest superstar in China. When we were walking to the stadium there were thousands of people lining the barricades screaming his name (I was walking right next to him and the guy was a total pro and a nice guy I dont know how he managed but it was impressive).
I think the biggest thing that I will remember is before we walked out on the field in front of 90,000 screaming fans all 600 USA team members stopped in the tunnel and started chanting USA, USA, USA. I still get chills writing about it those three letters reverberated off the walls and through my skin. It was very emotional to be part of something like this and something people could never come close to imagining having never lived it themselves. You don’t learn this stuff or gain experiences like this in any college or any B School. Just unreal.

In case you are wondering, YES it was me who in front of the camera said “HI MOM” the fellow next to me was my sailing buddy and 04 silver medalist Charlie Olgetree, great guy and like me equally funny (well maybe a little less than I am). Standing in that stadium during the opening ceremony was an incredible experience. The most memorable thing besides the tunnel experience and walking around the circle with the rest of the team was the torch lighting. To see it in person was incredible! I am not sure how London 2012 will top that as I think it will be a very tough act to follow.

Let’s see what else have I been up to?

My sponsor Oakley sunglasses has what they call a safe house here. It’s awesome only athletes and their guests, and select media are allowed inside. They rented out the 3rd floor of this night club and remodeled it with tons of TVs, lots of display cases for ALL the Oakleys that they give us to wear during the Olympics. Air hockey tables and all the food you can eat! It’s great and it feels like home! Al Janc and Megan Pura really did a super job of making me and my family welcome. Great glasses and great people who I am very happy about being associated with.

On the evening of the 9th Sally, my brother in law Schaeffer and me headed over to the Oakley Safe House for dinner and to see what else was happening. It didn’t take very long for Sally to make some friends (who I will not name, but trust me they are very famous cyclists who just rode 160 miles and competed earlier in the day and there Olympics were done so they were ready to rock). Just so happened that I was on the VIP list at a Budwesier party at Club Bud. The six of us arrived and were ushered up the red carpet where the media waited and filmed us. That night lasted way too late. Basically, I now have even more respect for professional cyclists. I don’t even know how those guys were standing after racing for seven hours…. just insane.

Last night JD and I did another interview with NBC, it went really well and I am sure you can find it on nbcolympics.com. After the interview, I was able to score some swimming and gymnastics tickets for the whole family. During the gymnastics, I got to meet the CEO of American Century and his family. You may not make much of this, but I used to work on Wall Street and I miss it on a daily basis. They couldn’t have been nicer, what a great family and great kids! I look forward to staying in touch post Olympics!!

I came down with a bit of the flu but not to worry I was in good hands with the USOC doctor who gave me some medicine and sent me on the way.

Tomorrow, JD and I head back to Qingdao. We measure our boat on the 13th and racing begins on the 15th.

Time to go to work.

Austin

This is a historic day in my life!

Man, I cannot believe how cool this experience is, I worked so hard to be here and now it seems that it was worth it – giving up most of my life to follow my dreams and believe in my passion.

I got a call today from the US Sailing press officer Derby Anderson and she told me that JD and I were going on the Today Show – with Matt Laurer, Ann Curry and Meredith!

Sally and the entire Dane armada arrived this evening and we headed straight to the Olympic Village We went directly to the (MPC) Main Press Center, so we could secure temp passes for everyone to get into the venue to watch the filming of the Today show.

I was taken to the green room to wait until the producer told me to head to the set. Well, in the green room there were quite a few very cool people. The first person was David Lauren and his girlfriend (you know of Ralph Lauren POLO). They made and designed our opening ceremony outfits which are pretty cool!!!! So I had a nice long chat with them and introduced myself to 3 track cyclists who were all very cool!! I am a huge cycling fan, so meeting some of these guys was a highlight. I also met Peter Ueberroth, the Chairman of the US Olympic Committee.

It’s funny, when that alarm clock went off 6 days a week at 4:45am back home in Gulfport MS to get into the gym and the countless hours of sitting in terminals or the 16 times I have been across the globe, it finally makes total sense on why I gave 150% total effort to this project. Standing in the middle of the Olympic Village was something like I have never seen before, The Birds Nest (site of the opening ceremony and Track and Field), the Swim Tank (at night it is lit up and looks like a bunch of boulders) or the mist that is coming off the practice fields, these sights make everything I have ever sacrificed seem worth it.

We made it, I can’t believe it, I can’t sleep its 1am here on 8/8/08 and today is the day its opening ceremony!!!!!!! I have my outfit hung up, and I will have it pressed for the big show!
I am so lucky!!! I am living a dream.

Be sure to tune into the Today show (Friday your time). I am not sure what time it comes on but it might be before the opening ceremony or in the am. I don’t know.
You will see JD and I and Sally. All really cool.

I am fired up!!!!

Later

Austin

Well its August 7th here in China. JD and I just landed in Beijing (from Qingdao, the sailing venue). We are here to walk in the opening ceremony which is happening tomorrow (8/8/08).

We checked into a small hotel called the Shangyuan Hotel, this is the place I booked months ago for JD’s entire family. All five of his kids are coming, plus two of his wife’s kids and one spouse. The rooms are very small and cramped. It reminds me of a hotel somewhere in a remote part of Europe. The walls are an off white color, well more yellow to be exact, and there is one English channel on the TV. There are two small twin beds jammed up against each corner of the room. Thank goodness for internet!

The funny thing is that the USOC might not let me stay in this hotel with my wife, and JD with his family, because there is a rule that all athletes must stay in the Olympic Village for security reasons. Oh well, time will tell.

Life has been great in Qingdao. We have had four solid days of training on the yellow sea, preparing us for our August 15th start. The boat seems to be going well and the boat speed seems to be there. Let’s see how this will all play out.

Most everyone seems pretty loose around the boat park, but as the racing starts rest assured there will be no friends amongst the competitors.

I will be hanging here in Beijing with Sally until August 12th when we head back to Qingdao. We have hull measurement on the 13th and the practice race is on the 14th. I will have more detailed reports as we get closer to the start of racing and after the opening ceremony tomorrow, which I will surely have memories and hopefully tons of pictures.

Thanks again for following along in this great life adventure.

Later

Austin

JD, Hans and I arrived in China yesterday (Saturday night).

I am getting use to these long haul flights, and it’s really getting easier to travel. I know the Beijing airport like I know Gulfport International. It’s a piece of cake.

I had a really great flight, there were about 150 other US Olympic Athletes on the plane from SFO. The other athletes were part of the women’s volleyball team (I am not a small person, but these gals were each around 6’7” tall and super fit athletes).

The mens wrestling team was also on the plane. Everybody needs to be on the lookout for my buddy Daniel Cormier he is a wrestler in the 211lb weight class. He’s great guy and look for him to whip a few people in a few weeks. The badminton team was also on the plane – my buddy Howard thinks they might win a medal!

But the best part of the trip was at the baggage claim in Beijing when all 150 of us athletes were waiting to collect out bags.

Austin makes rookie Olympian mistake. When we went through team processing in San Jose last week we all got our opening ceremony outfits, all the Polo and Nike clothes this was all fantastic but we also ALL got the same two pieces of luggage. Smart guy that I am, I did not have a name tag on my bag, just the name tag from United Airlines. So, after looking at about 300 pieces of luggage I finally found all my stuff. Note to self next time I will put a neon green piece of duct tape or something to make my bag stand out from the crowd.

But something good came out of the the mistake, in the process of picking up every piece of Nike luggage, I saw some other athletes bags more specifically the USA cycling team!!! Woooo Hooooo I am a huge fan… I spoke with the personal trainer and mechanic (he informed me the guys are arriving later). But nonetheless, I will be able to meet some of my Tour de France Idols!!!!! I am so pumped, I cant wait!

Here in Qingdao life is AWESOME! We are now living in the Olympic Village. I am rooming with my coach Hans Wallen, he is a great guy, tons of fun. He makes me laugh non stop with his accent and best part os he doesn’t snore… Life is great.

After the Games, the village will be turned into a five star Intercontinental Hotel, so as you can imagine its sweet!!! Were on the 15th floor over looking the boat park and the water. We can actually see the Class flag pole from our room and see when they raise and lower the postponement flag. Hansy has been joking that he doesn’t need to leave the room when we race on course A, because with a good set of binos he can coach from his bed.

Today we woke up early around 630 am. Hansy and I headed to the gym here in the hotel, then onto breakfast and the boat park.

We unpacked yet another container and after a bit of boat work we were on the water around 1400. Today we trained with Robert Schidet, Hammish Pepper and Xavier Rohart. Everything is going as planned and we had a great session. Tomorrow more of the same.

Gotta run, our team leader Dean Brenner is about to give me a new hair cut. It’s a bit warm here in China and I am going to run the shaved head look. I am trying to reduce the windage…. I already shaved my legs so now I need to make the top more aero.

I am trying to write update often to keep you all posted.

Later

Austin

Friends, family and great weather make San Francisco better and better each time we visit.

On 23 July, we finished a two week training camp in China so Rodney Hagebols, Mark Reynolds, JD and I arrived in SF last Wednesday. Our training camp was very productive on all fronts. We have chosen our boat for the Games, we have three masts we’re confident in and our sail selection looks fast.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, we all went different directions for the evening. I headed for the Erickson’s in Tiburon for some of their great hospitality. Then JD and I met up in the next morning to travel together to San Jose State University for Olympic team processing. At SJSU, we hooked up with the rest of our teammates and our team leader, Dean Brenner.

I have to say, I loved every minute of it! I enjoyed all 16 years of college, so I was naturally excited for one more night in a college dorm with my buddies and teammates.

The US Olympic Team is sponsored by Nike and Ralph Lauren, so we got some very cool gear that I will be wearing proudly at the opening ceremony and around town. They gave each of us a shopping cart and a clipboard with a list. I visited every station where we loaded up on everything, from four pairs of shoes to an Olympic leather jacket. We were even sized for our Olympic rings. We were also fitted for our opening ceremony blazers and trousers (Ralph Lauren even made the alterations while we waited!).

Then on Friday night, we were at my home club – the St Francis Yacht Club for a team send off party. Close to 50 of my family and friends came to party and did we ever celebrate! My childhood buddy CJ and his parents came along too, so I let them in on a secret that we’ve kept for 11 years. Back in 1995, I ran away from boarding school and when I arrived in San Francisco I hid out at their house, yet they only found out the details on Friday night!

It’s been great hanging out here in SF. Sally is here and helping me tick a few things off the list with some last minute shopping for Qingdao. Rodney has also been fantastic. He never stops working, I am not sure I could live without these people.

So all is well. I can’t wait to get this started!

I am enjoying sharing this unique experience with you and really love reading your feedback.

The best part is yet to come, stay tuned!

Austin

Hello from Qingdao.

Yesterday was a big day for us here in China. We have been working on a few items for the light winds we expect for the Olympic Games next month, but before we can race with them we need find out how strong they are and see if the stuff breaks and what its range is.

As you can see from the photos, it broke. Yes we found its range. Hence it was a the $10,000 dollar day (the cost for a new mast and a new set of sails).

Some people may look at this like, man that was a really bad day, but call me an eternal optimist. I look at this situation from a different angle.

1) It was blowing 20kts, with puffs up to 25kts (this is when the mast fell over) with really big waves out on the Yellow Sea. We knew the risks associated with what we were doing and went for it. You will never grow as a team, in business, in life or as a person if you don’t take a few risks.

2) It was a brand new mast that had never been in the boat before today. You might say wow that’s bad, but I say that’s good because we will never know if it was a fast or slow mast.

3) When this happened, our team rallied around each other there was no yelling, no talking just the sounds of waves crashing over the bow and the sound of a torn sail blowing in a stiff breeze. Four guys got to work to clean the mess up get on the tow and make it back to harbor. We were about three miles to the SE of the harbor entrance when this happened. We had this yard sale cleaned up and off the boat ten minutes after we got back to the dock. Impressive, like we had done it before.

4) Team work and togetherness are really strong – I can tell that we are getting ready to peak for the Games. When someone is down we pick them up, build them up and get on with the day. No mulling around, no head down moping around…100% business.

Today is another day, seven knots predicted so more racing today against Marc Pickel. It’s another opportunity to become better and faster.

It’s been a great training camp. We have nearly everything sorted for the Olympic Games as far as equipment goes, just focusing on the basics now.

We have four more days of sailing left before we head back to San Francisco.

I have to roll, I need to rig another mast and make sure she is ready to race this afternoon.

More later

Austin

Hello again from my second home – Qingdao, China.

The team arrived in Qingdao last Sunday after 30 hours of travelling. A long day, but nonetheless great to be back to work.

Since our last training camp in June, it sure has become a lot more humid and a bit warmer (I cooked two eggs on the asphalt next to our Star in the boat park today!). Rodney Hagebols, Hans Wallen, JD and I have been working non-stop since we arrived. We are here again with our training partners Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski. They are being coached by Mark Reynolds. It’s been great training with them. We are all really good friends and we push each other on the water, while off the water we press each other’s buttons for a bit of fun, always at someone else’s expense. This is usually good for at least 20 minutes of straight laughter.

We have a few new quotes this week that have stuck with us. My all time favorites are:

“Look at me when you speak to me”—JD3
“Diet Coke WITH ice”—JD3
“RODDNEEEEYYYY”—JD3 has perfected it with his southern drawl….
“Dude, du-de, de-dude dude dude”—Austin (the guys tell me when I see them screw something up I let out multiple dudes in one breath!)

A quick note about what we have been doing.

Testing, more testing and yes some more testing. But the good news is that we’ve finished testing and from this afternoon until this camp ends in a week, all we will be doing is racing. Time and dIstance, rounding marks, starts, match racing situations, gybing, tacking etc. Basics 101. It’s funny how you can get so wrapped up with testing sometimes you lose sight of the big picture. Remember, it’s a boat race and if we can’t execute the basics we’re already in a hole before the big show begins.

July 15th was John Dane III’s 58th birthday. We had a big night in Qingdao. We had a great dinner with the team at our standard restaurant DaVinci, from there we headed down to the club (which is also in the same hotel) where a bunch of sailors from other nations joined in on the celebration. An epic night! Just think about it, a guy who’s 58 is going to his first Olympics…pretty impressive.

I will be heading to team processing in San Jose, California on July 24th-25th. This is where JD and I hook up with other Olympians to get our USA team gear and fitted for our opening ceremony outfits. I read today that we will get Olympic Rings (for your finger, but I will also be getting my Olympic rings tattoo while I am in San Francisco. I still dont know where I will put it, most likely on my arm, but I am running out of room – sorry Mom). We have an option to take the standard ring which is free or you can upgrade to a more Super Bowl bling style. You guessed it, I am going for the bling!

I am really looking forward to it. This is an experience that I will never forget and have a hard time putting into words.

Austin


PS. Sally, honey I miss you and it’s almost over…

We have roughly one month to go before our first race of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I just got home from China (after a 28 hour trip home). I literally started my stop watch when the wheels went up in Qingdao and I stopped my watch when the plane touched down in Gulfport… just shy of 30 hours.

A number of people ask me what I am feeling. Am I nervous, stressed, excited? Honestly I am ready to get the Games started. I am tried of talking about it. I am ready to get over there and give it everything we have. Total focus, total energy, total dedication. Just like we have done for the past 3 1/2 years.

People also keep asking me who are the favorites to win the gold? And what about the algae?

My mind set going into the Olympics will be much the same as it was during our Olympic winner take all trials. Full head down, eye on the prize. I am not worrying about the other competitors. They’re all professionals. They have all beaten us. But guess what? We have beaten all them before too. You can’t get too bogged down worrying about what the competition is doing. I can’t control that so I don’t worry about it. Instead, I focus on what I can control doing my job 150%.

My mentality is basically the same for the algae. My thinking is that with the amount of manpower the Chinese have working on it, it will get sorted out one way or another. Secondly with a target race time of just over an hour, there will not be huge amounts of leverage on the race course (like you see at a 100 boat regatta). In other words, the boats will be really close around the race track and everyone will deal with the algae. Some might get luckier than others, but nonetheless we will all have to deal with some kelp from time to time. I can’t control what happens with the algae, but I can control working on my keel swipes and rudder cleaning techniques.

It’s been great being home. Sally and I have been laying low and trying to relax as much as possible! It’s been very nice. I pinched a nerve in my neck so I have been doing re-hab about two times a day. I finally got back in the gym after a few weeks of being absent (not to worry I was still riding my road bike daily).

I also have an old coach in town, John Difede, who lives and operates out of Miami. John is currently living at my house, so with multiple sessions during the day (including massages that are NOT relaxing and lots of stretching), we are getting the issue sorted out.

This past weekend was the 4th of July. Big holiday here in the states. JD has a family tradition on showdown and Sally and I joined the small group of 96 other family members for a day out on the Mississippi Gulf. It was great! It’s funny when you marry a gal such as Sally that has such a huge family its seems like I meet new family members all the time (but between you readers and myself) I have met all of them 100 times but I gotta be honest I don’t know half of their names….. I gotta work on this one. All good though. A great day on the water followed by a good time at JD’s new restaurant “The Dock”.

That’s all for now, but here’s what’s coming up:


10-12 July – San Francisco
12-23 July – China
July 23-25 – St FYC dinner send off & pre-games ‘processing’ (credentials and team gear for opening Olympic Ceremonies)
25 July -August 1st – San Francisco , relax with Sally
August 1st – China
August 8th – Opening ceremony in Beijing
August 14th – Practice race
August 15-23 – Racing for Star Class
August 25th – Return home

August 26th – Sleep for one month straight….

Later

Austin

All is well here in Qingdao.

More of the same for the last few days. Boat work in the am, followed by dock off around 1245, returning to the harbor around 1800.

We have been very productive over the last ten days and will be closing out camp on Wednesday.

The new boats have arrived from Europe. One of them has been sailing the last few days. Up to this point all is well.

We sailed today for about four hours. No racing, just more testing and tuning. Not the most exciting, but very productive nonetheless.

The visibility today started out fairly decent, but after lunch the fog rolled in. Thank goodness for our two GPSs. We also have back up batteries for the extra GPS unit.
Safety is no accident….

The Irish and British teams are here as well. We’re not sailing together on the water, but it’s nice to see the guys in an unfamiliar place. Everything else seems to be under control, the locals are very nice and the hospitality is some of the best I have ever experienced! We are very well taken care of here in China.

Most of the US Sailing team has left. But the Yingling’s, M470, boards and Laser teams are still here. Mark Kenna our physio left today, so we are left to fend for ourselves with our sore bodies until we get home.

Not much more to report I’m afraid. But I don’t think you want to hear about me measuring the masts, then taking them out and re-stepping the rigs…

Situation normal here. Business as usual.

Later

Austin

The entire gang is here! We are operating on all cylinders. JD and Hans arrived on Monday afternoon/evening. It’s good to have the band together again!

The first day of sailing was spent taking pictures of new sails from on and off the boat! The breeze was about 4-5 kts with the occasional monster puff of 7kts rolling through from time to time. The day was very productive. We were actually very happy with what we saw and how our gear looked.

Logistics are a bit off the pace here. When we want to launch our Star boat into the water (which remember costs Y300 one way) it’s a bit more detailed. One of the coaches has to run up and find the translator, then she runs and finds the hoist operator. Then about ten people stand around and what seems to me, they yell at one another. This goes on and on until our boats get either in or out of the water. So far, so good – no damage to any of the gear, but it’s day to day.

Re-fueling our tenders is a process too. First, we have to pre-pay for the gas, we have to guesstimate how many liters we might need then pay for it. We wait about 30 minutes for a pallet jack to arrive near the boat where there are about ten five gallon fuel tanks. This is how we manually fuel our coach boats. Entertaining nonetheless. You know it’s gonna be a great day when you actually get more fuel in the gas tank than you do all inside the tender and in turn all over the sails that are coming out for the day.

The team has been venturing out of the hotel for dinner. We have discovered an Italian place called DaVinci and the chef Salvatore takes great care of us!

It’s funny, the night before I left San Francisco for China, my wife Sally wanted Chinese food. Being the great husband that I am, I agreed. It sounded like a great plan, might as well get a head start on the local food. Since we have been here we have been eating Western food every night, I think tonight I might eat some lo-mein. You guys would actually be impressed, I learned a few Chinese words. I dont know what I am saying, but the locals seem to be impressed!

Today, we might of actually had the best day in Qingdao as far as sailing goes. We docked off at 1300 and sailed down to our race course where we tested and tuned for a few hours. Wouldn’t you know it the sea breeze came in and we headed out to Korea on a long starboard tack. We kept going and kept going and kept going.

We made it into the shipping channel and even managed to get 3 horns from a passing container ship. This was all fun, but the fog came in and the visibility wasn’t very good. Hans kept looking at the GPS a few times, I could see he was getting nervous about being halfway to the United States, so we decided to turn around. It was blowing about 12-14kts and took us about 1.5 hours on a downwind run to actually see land again. We tested on port tack up to the harbor entrance, finished hauling the boats and did our debrief by 1830.

Life is good here. We all miss home and I especially miss my wife, but we only have one week left.

Our new boat has arrived in Qingdao from Germany (by plane) but it’s stuck in customs. With a little luck we might get it in a few days.

The end is in sight for this journey. We all have mixed emotions about it. I say I won’t miss it, but truth of the matter is I have done this for so long I don’t know how I will feel. I will miss the team, the great adventures and life experiences they don’t teach you in college.

It’s going be a great summer here in China…. It’s amazing how a positive attitude puts your mind in a different place…

Just got home from the gym after a long day so I’m off to take a shower and head to dinner…. I am thinking Chinese tonight.

Later

Austin

Hello from China!

My team, Rodney Hagebols (aka Hagwami) Steve Erickson (aka Wonder) Mark Reynolds (aka Godfather) and me arrived in China on Saturday night after 24 hours of travelling. We are here to train for the next couple of weeks.

Before I arrived, I spent the week in San Francisco (CA) with my wife Sally celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary! We had a wonderful time with our friends and the Erickson family. We boarded our flight on Friday morning to Beijing and from there to Qingdao. Despite the long travel, we all arrived in good spirits and were ready to get to work. Our training partners, Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski, arrived from Germany shortly before us and were anxious to get started.

We are staying in the same hotel as last summer – The Seaview Garden. The have given the hotel a facelift and the rooms are all totally re-done. It’s really very nice. It almost gives me the feeling of staying aboard a Trinity Yacht with all the dark woodwork in the rooms…(well, maybe not a Trinity, but it is nice). I would definitely recommend it. When we arrived, we enjoyed a bit of Chinese cuisine and then returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

We woke up Sunday and headed to the training center yacht club called YinHi (the Olympic Village is not yet open to the sailors). It is very convenient because it is across the street from our hotel. We worked all day unloading our two containers and rigging both boats. WOW, we sure do have a lot of stuff! A few times I asked myself if an America’s Cup team has this much gear. The good thing is we are 150% totally self sufficient and 150% totally organized. I even rented the 40’ Container that our boats came over in, as a base station and a storage locker for all of our sails, masts, booms & parts. The only negative thing is that the locals charge us 300 Yuan to launch our Star boat and 300 Yuan to haul the boat out at the end of the day – and we have 3 Star boats here and 2 tenders.

I find that I am much more comfortable here in China compared to last year when it was my first trip, and I am much more focused. The city really is great and very accommodating.

That said, my cell phone doesn’t seem to work over here this time around, so I am in cell phone detox and I am enjoying it! But not to worry, I still talk to my wife via Skype.

Last night the boys and I ventured out of the hotel to a nice Italian restaurant in the Shangra La Hotel, a short cab ride away. Every cab ride here costs about 10 Ding Dongs (this is what we call the currency, the real name is Yuan) anyway 10 ding dongs is about a dollar. We ate at the DaVinci restaurant and made friends with the Chef Salvatore who is from the South of Italy. He took really great care of us, I am sure we will go back.

Before I left for China, NBC sent me a cool Flip Camera. It’s this really small movie camera that I take around with me and shoot behind the scene footage of what our team does. This is so fun, but unfortunately the footage I have been shooting so far has been a bit off color, so I am not sure it will make it to the big screen.

That’s all for now. I have been up since 5am (couldn’t sleep) and getting ready to head to breakfast and looking forward to another good day of training.

Later

Austin

I love this place, but I could definitely live without the cold. JD and I are in Kiel, training with Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski. We have our coaches Rodney Hagebols and Hans Wallen, along with Anthony Kotoun with us.

For anybody who has not been to Kiel before, here are some things about the city you should know before your trip:

1) It’s cold bring ALL your warm foul weather gear, if you think you brought enough, pack more
2) It never gets dark, so to sleep bring your sunglasses
3) Don’t forget rule number 1

My favorite comment from a German local was, “You’re cold? It’s warm today.” We arrived last Saturday after a 14 hour flight. We made it but, JD’s bags didn’t. We lent him some sailing clothes and a clean shirt, and he was good to go. Although after two days in the same gear it was getting a bit funky. Luckily his bags finally arrived day three of the
trip. Mark Pickel organized a taxi from Hamburg up to Kiel, we slept in the taxi because we knew work was on the horizon. Lots and lots of work. We went straight to Pickel’s boatyard and began preparing the two boats for the following day of tuning and testing.

Sailing in Europe is huge! Much much bigger than in North America! The Pinta racing team (Marc and Ingo’s sponsor) has their own press team and they organized a media day. Well, I expected there might be a few reporters asking us a few questions here and there. However, there were more than 25 media reporters on hand; we spent about 2 hours with the TV, newspaper and other invited journalists. After the questions, three tenders full of press followed the two boats out on the water to film us in action.

We will get some of the footage up on the site when it comes in. Also be sure to check in at www.austinsperry.com there are lots of new photos up and videos.

Looking ahead, I will be in San Diego at the end of the month for a 5 day testing session then heading to China on June 13th.

It’s all happening, is a serious understatement!

Austin

JD and I just returned from a fantastic 24 hours in Chicago! First off, I love that city! I have been there a handful of times and somehow I seem to always have an awesome time. This past weekend was no different. Although, I was not exactly fired up about flying there and back for a 24 hour meeting, actually I was a bit grumpy about this.

JD and I arrived in Chicago around noon on Friday, May 9th. We caught a taxi and made it to the Hilton Palmer Hotel around 13.00, just in time for lunch and the meetings began at 14.00. JD and I checked in and he looked at me and asked, “What room are you in?” I replied, “10-110. What about you?”

JD said, “10-110”. Hmmm looks like my father in law and I will be spending some more quality time together. The hotel was amazing! One with lots of history, the old school Chicago. The rooms were great and the bed was comfortable.

The purpose of this weekend was to learn to be an ambassador at the Olympics, as we represent our great country. There were about 100 other Olympic athletes, plus about ten Sports Ambassadors (ex Olympians, all medalists but attending as coaches). One of my favorite ambassadors was Brandy Chastine. Brandy won a few gold medals in soccer and at least one World Cup, if I remember correctly.

Brandy was really nice and hung out with JD and I along with the rest of our crew. It was really cool meeting other athletes who have the same passion for competion. I met some really interesting people, some of my personal favorites were the wrestlers and the water polo team, the latter of which were all from Orange County California (Newport Beach, etc as am I). We had some really intelligent conversations that started and ended with the word dude. Ahh, it was great reminded me of growing up in Newport, surfing and spending summers at the beach.

After the meetings ended, JD and I held a mandatory meeting at the bar in the lobby of this impressive hotel. I also had a mandatory sign in sheet. As the night wore on, my new wrestling buddy and one of my best friends from boarding school (Mike Sturman) and I decided we were hungry. So we headed out to find the first place open at that hour. Lucky for us we found a bar/restaurant and the wrestler (who will remain nameless) ordered a 32oz steak and a few appetizers and I order a couple racks of ribs.

I think I ate 2 ribs, not 2 racks, only 2 ribs before Mr. Wrestler powered down the 32oz T-Bone and then proceeded eating my meal. I didnt want to say anything, he iss a lot bigger than I am so I just sat and watched with awe. Very impressive. I asked what weight class he wrestles in and he said 211 pounds…. I said ok what are you weighing now (pre meal) he answered 247 lbs but that he needs to get down to weight by June 11th. I spoke with him yesterday and he just got back from a 4 mile “hill” run and was going to wrestle all afternoon.

It was interesting to learn that many of the 100 other athletes still have not even had their trials yet, most of which will take place over the next month. I also met athletes in Track & Field, Fencing and Badminton (is this in the Olympics?). One woman did something called the race walk! Shooting, field hockey. I haven’t met Kobe Bryant or LaBron James yet but I think they have a bit on with the NBA playoffs going on.

The gist of the weekend was to become a good ambassador for the USA and to learn about mental prep. The main focus was on “being comfortable in uncomfortable situations”. We did all sorts of exercises in smaller groups that were very different and took each one of us out of our comfort zones. We all made complete fools of ourselves, but again this was the point of becoming comfortable. I took away tons of important information and cherished the experience.

We got home Saturday night and I was wrecked! Then I woke up Sunday and realized it was Mothers Day and my 30th birthday…. man, it’s going by too fast.

As my good buddy Paul Cayard says, “The richest people in the world are the people with the greatest life experiences.” How true my friend, I still learn the value of this lesson on a daily basis.

Later

Austin

Hello from San Diego (actually, Chula Vista), California. I am out training here at the US Olympic Training Center.

Well, I guess you figured out that the Star Worlds did not go as planned. We were in 13th place going into the last race and with a decent finish we would have had a top ten overall. Long story short is that we had a decent start and an average first beat. At the top of the first beat we gybed onto port for the run and were pointing at the leeward marks on port gybe. Things were looking very good but wouldn’t you know that the boats on our right looking downwind and on starboard gybe still beat us to the leeward gates. This was a very strange run and was a first in my career. Chalk it up to experience. Lesson learned. We are keeping our eye on the big prize in August.

Overall, the Miami season was a good one. We won the Commodores Cup, placed 4th at the Bob Levin Regatta, 3rd at Bacardi Cup and JD had a 5th at the Star Masters with his son, while I had a 10th with my old man at the same regatta. We made great progress on our road to Beijing.

After the Worlds, Rodney and I stayed in Miami to move out of the team house and load two containers with our boats for China. It’s amazing how much stuff we collected living in the team house for the past five months! With the weak dollar and a booming export business here in the States, there was a serious shortage of containers. Rodney and I had to wait around a week until two containers became available. We finally loaded all of our gear. Two Star boats, one RIB, one US Sailing team RIB and 8 masts and 4 booms.

This took about 4 hours to complete but was a huge weight off our shoulders once we finished this ordeal. After that we got a good night’s sleep and Rodney and I drove back to Mississippi the following day with the team van and suburban, towing home the other Star boat and two Finns. It was a 13 hour drive, but it was good to finally be home. I was away on this trip for 35 days… too long.. Rodney was away for the same amount. I want to thank all of our wives and better halves for supporting us during these final months leading up to the Games.

Did I mention it was great to sleep in my own bed and lay on my own couch… It was nice. But I couldn’t get to used to it because although I was home on Saturday, I was off on Thursday to the US Olympic Training Facility in San Diego.

As soon as I arrived at Orange County Airport, I collected my bike and bag, then headed straight to Andy MacDonald’s. When I arrived at his great house in Laguna Beach I immediately noticed that his road bike was ready to go! Andy rides a lot so I knew it was going to be a hard afternoon. We shot the breeze for a few minutes then I put my bike together and off we went on a little ride. Andy Mac is in his mid fifties and is really fit. It was fun trying to hang on his back wheel for the afternoon. We made it safely back to his house and got ready for a little party that evening. Colin (Andy’s son and fantastic guy) along with John Virtue (one of my other life long friends) started playing liars dice on his kitchen table, we started at 5pm with the dice and a few beverages, we were still sitting at the table come 2am with the same dice and fewer drinks! An epic evening with old friends.

Friday morning I woke up and headed to San Diego to check into the US Training Facility. This place is awesome! It’s over 150 acres and has everything you can think of! Track, pole vault, state of the art weight room, BMX track (yes, BMX bikes are now an Olympic Sport) – everything.

On Friday evening, I picked up my personal strength and conditioning coach Chris Herrera from the San Diego airport. Needless to say we came home and crashed. On Saturday, we woke up at 7am went to the on campus restaurant (which has great food that is healthy) had a big breakfast and headed to the gym. This is not an ordinary gym! It is state of the art – not your local health club! What I found to be the coolest thing in the gym was all the 60” plasma TVs around the weight room. They are used for play back and run on 30 second delayed loop. This means, I could do a power clean and power snatch, then watch myself on the big screen to make sure my form was in line and that I did not hurt myself.

It’s cool walking around this place. There are real athletes here, fit and focused its really motivating. When you’re here all you want to do is train. We live in a dorm type apartment, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, no kitchen but a small fridge next to a small desk near the front door.

I have been riding my road bike a bit, yesterday we were in the gym lifting for more than 4 hours over two sessions. After the last session, I put my bike costume on and Coach Herrera got in my rental car and followed me while I hit the road. Basically, I thought Chris was there in case I crashed or got a flat tire. Nope, he had other ideas. Ideas called intervals!

So Chris pulls up next to me in the car while I was riding to say that when he honks the horn he wants me to basically get out of the saddle and grind the pedals into the payment for 30 seconds at a time… sounds fun, huh! Well, after a while I thought his horn was broken because it kept honking! Finally, my legs said no more and we called it a day around 6pm. This went on for a few days. Needless to say I am so sore it hurts to laugh, cough, walk well I can hardly walk and the truth of the matter is, this is how I judge a good workout, if it hurts to move I knew I gave it 110%...

I just returned from taking Chris to the airport and I am laying on the couch trying to prepare my body for one more workout in the morning before I get on a flight headed home.
It’s been really great here, a great place to clear my mind and focus on my body. It has been very productive.

Looking ahead next Friday, I leave for Chicago for a two day event on how to be a ambassador at the Olympics. Then Sunday is my birthday… turning 30 years old.. I am on the fence on this one not sure if I should embrace this of be depressed….. from there I head to Germany.

That’s all for now, be sure to check out my website www.austinsperry.com for the latest pictures, clips and updates. I will also be posting some video and pictures from my trip to San Diego and a few other random shots….

Later…
Austin