Its been 1 month since we arrived at out training base in LA.
We sailed 16 races in the Olympic Trials and it’s official were heading to the OLYMPICS!!!
We did it, we won the Olympic Trials!!! I told you guys from day one to Believe and I was true to my words
and beliefs…..

I gotta be honest, it wasn’t easy, but what an unbelievable feeling to have reached a goal, knowing how much hard work we put into this! Truly Amazing…..

I am still in shock and in the beginning stages of planning the next year year…. Its not easy, I have zero energy and I am hung over….

Wow.. I am emotionally and physically drained… I am spent…

How we won it:

Last race of the series, we were 1 point behind George Szabo and 4 points ahead of Mark Mendleblatt. To win we had to have a boat in between us and Szabo and not be behind Mendleblatt by more than 3 boats…. Sounds easy right….
We had the best start, it was the best start of the whole week…. We nailed it at the boat end, man JD had that boat screaming up the first beat. After the start we had the entire fleet to leeward (we were looking at them in our main window, for people who don’t know what this means it means we were ahead by a lot)) Andy Horton was the only boat? that made it around the top mark ahead of us… We rounded the weather mark 2nd, with Szabo and Mendleblatt Deep… Cant let up now.. press on, put the gas pedal down GO GO GO… On the first downwind run the position’s remained the same we rounded the leeward gate in second and we opted to round the left hand mark (looking downwind) Rick Merriman/Phil Trinter rounded the right mark and managed to pass both Horton and US half way up the next beat… We were calm and waited for the right moment to attack.. (all the while Szabo is passing boats.). things were getting tense…. So Top of the last beat we got a little left shift and passed Horton to round second right on the transom of Merriman… Down the last run things were going smoothly we had good speed, and with 100 yards to go we took the lead and won the RACE!!!? And in the process earned our ticket to China…..!!!!!!!!

HUGE HUGE HUGE…. I am pumped… What I am most pleased about is how we came together as a team and unit over the last month, we clicked when we needed to, we broke the spirits of all the other competitors….? I am out of words, I am physically unable to type my feelings and emotions because there are no words to describe how I am feeling…..

We are now Olympians, and no one can ever take this away!!!

Fist goal DONE
Gold Medal Next step….?

With the right amount of work, training, dedication and luck… Its all possible….
Believe!

Austin