Will US Sailing’s Olympic Vision please stand up

So it’s all over. Sadly it was over for the US before the regatta was done. Two medals and two finalists in the medal rounds, none in the last day of racing. Congratulations to Zach and Anna. As for the US Sailing organization behind the sailors, it’s time for some serious reflection. In  a wrap-up on the US Sailing’s Olympic blog, Team Leader Dean Brenner agonized about his pride and disappointment in a post entitled “Starting to get my arms around this”. Dude! Now is a little late to be getting your arms around anything. I can’t imagine a more unfortunate post title. Look!  I am a limey at heart but I would have loved nothing more than seeing the US underdogs really challenge. Lets face it, the US team’s performance was disappointing. The medal tally was the same as 2004 and that was equally disappointing. The US finished out of the top 10 in 7 out of 11 events.  That’s 7 medal events without US Sailors. Come on! For a nation of 300 million people with our resources and heritage in Olympics sailing, can’t we do better? In another article Dean says:

“We are in year four of a 20-year strategy. I’m proud of the results, but I’m not satisfied. We can do better, and once the dust settles on this event, we’ll get to work planning for 2012 and 2016.” He concluded, “I was happy when we were coming into these Games and I’m still happy.”

First, lets look ahead to 2012. It will be the Brits home field and Skandia Team GBR’s coach has already said that his goal for 2012 is to gold medal the lot. Hubris? When you look at what they did in cycling, this seems like a threat with real teeth. If you consider what the Lottery money is doing already for Team GB, imagine what effect it will have in 2012. Second, what strategy?  I have trawled all over US Sailing’s web sites, Googled the hell out of this and I can’t find reference to any strategy. Nothing on their web site. In fact the best I can find is an annual report from 2006 which is entirely backward looking. Word of advice - HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY? If anyone can point me in the direction of this aforementioned strategy, I would be much obliged and I will then shut-up.