Luke & Hunter Tokyo 2020 Newsletter
First Edition "The Victory Lap"
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Most Olympic campaigns start 4 years out with a mission and a well-paced, systematic plan to try to get on the podium at the Olympic games. They are not stitched together by two guys with desk jobs, using a boat that is about 10 years too old, shipped on a U-Haul across the continent in the winter to Canada, for 3 months of training in the cold before they “give it a go” at the Olympic trials. But here we are, announcing our crazy idea to start racing 470s in an attempt to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics this August!
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But who are the “we” ….
Luke Ramsay is probably best known in the sailing world for marrying Annie Haeger, but also happens to sail some boats on his own. His highlights include winning the ISAF Youth World Championship in the Laser, competing in the 2012 Olympics in a 470 and the 2016 Olympics in a Nacra Catamaran, and earning a pair of Pan Am’s Silver Medals in the Sunfish in 2015 and 2019. Luke is also known for being able to excel in almost any boat, gain or losing an unhealthily amount of body weight at will, be the first one to turn the lights on in the boat park, and the last one to switch them off. Luke personifies working hard!
Hunter Lowden, known by most as the “gear guru”, if you want to make a boat go fast, Hunter is your guy. He had retired from Olympic Class competition after competing at the London 2012 Olympics as crew in the 49er, but is back on the water. He relishes the challenge of learning a new boat and the opportunity to team up with Luke. Hunter’s been the director of Sailing at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club since 2013, with a mindset to build the sailing programs up to a world class training ground for the next generation, and make their events zero waste.
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We have three goals that we are set out to accomplish, which would make this short campaign a success in our books.
1) Inspire and encourage youth sailors in Vancouver and across Canada to take up the sport of sailboat racing as a lifelong passion.
2) Be leaders and mentors to younger members of the Canadian Sailing Team and Canadian Olympic Team and help put a system in place to pass along knowledge.
3) Train hard, work smart, and enjoy the grind.
As much as we would like “Win a Gold Medal” to be on this list, we prefer to be realistic and focus on the process in our short 9 month campaign.
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How do the Olympic Trials work?
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The Olympic Trials has 2 components. Step 1, qualify Canada. Step 2, be the top Canadian.
Step 1: To qualify Canada we need to secure the “North American Continental spot” at the Miami World Cup Regatta (January 20-25, 2020, ie starting this Monday). At this event we will need to be the Top North American Boat not counting the USA, as they qualified via a previous spot at the World Championships). In simple terms this means the 3 Canadian 470’s will go head to head against the 3 Mexican Teams for the single Olympic Berth. Game on!
Step 2: Team qualification / Olympic Nomination. This selection is a combination of two events, Miami World Cup, this coming week, and the Princess Sofia Regatta in Mallorca in late March.
Your finish place for both events will be combined, and the Canadian with the lowest overall total will represent Canada.
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We would love you to tell your friends! Here is a link to sign up for our Newsletter.
Click this link to send us a few words of encouragement to our email.
Read this article posted by one of our favorite bloggers, Seth Godin about Staying positive.
If you want to make a donation to help us pay for equipment, travel, coaching expenses etc WAIT. Make sure we pick up Olympic Berth next week first. After that go you can get a tax receipt if you want to chip in by donating through Wind Athletes.
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Thank you for your support!
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Finally, if you have read down this far Luke and Hunter want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped us get to the start line of the Olympic Qualifiers, including our coaches and program managers Dave Ullman, Kevin Burnham, Annie Haeger, Sail Canada and our loving family and of course our sponsors:
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