A Long Overdue Return

Throughout this whole Covid Pandemic , turbulence is something that everyone has had to learn to deal with. With the state of the world changing day to day, making plans seems to be an almost futile gesture, and with the ground constantly shifting beneath our feet, the ability to regroup and continue to prepare a plethora of forward paths is a true measure of one’s volition. And yet as a sailor, the terrain shifting beneath me is something that I am all too used to. In fact, the whole challenge of sailing is making order of chaotic surroundings, to predict something that is unpredictable. It is often said in basic lessons about sailing tactics that the winner of a race is not the one who sails around the course perfectly; perfection is a statistical impossibility; rather, the winner is the athlete who makes the least mistakes. It is an important distinction, doing the least things wrong versus doing the most things right, and one that shows through in many aspects of my life. Bank gains minimize losses.

A month ago, everything was planned perfectly. A big spring European season was ahead, and I was chomping at the bit, ready to show the world the gains I had been banking all winter long. After a relentless two months of training in Malta, I was to head to Abu Dhabi at the beginning of March to compete in the Asian championships.  Here, my sparring partner Vishnu from India was hoping to wrap up a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics this summer and I was looking to bring home some hardware as well. From there we were to head to the Hyeres regatta in the south of France for what would be the first major Olympic classes regatta since Europeans last fall, and then from there to The Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca for what is one of the most important events for Canadian National Team funding. Our spring was to end with what was looking to be a relatively weaker fleet at the European Championships in Bulgaria, before heading back to Malta to begin preparations for Tokyo.

The first to fall was Palma, with an announcement that it was to be postponed to the fall. Next, rumours were afoot that the Asian championships were going to be cancelled.  This had a big effect on Vishnu as they were his Olympic qualifiers. Over the next week we heard they were postponed, then moved from Abu Dhabi to Oman then cancelled again before finally being confirmed for Oman but with a mandatory seven day hotel quarantine in the only hotel for hundreds of kilometers (at a cost of 165 euro per night). While all this was happening, the news broke that Hyeres too was going to be postponed. At first this was fine because it meant the postponed Asian championships did not overlap but then more news came out only a week later that it was to be cancelled all together, leaving the problem of where the final Olympic qualifier for the European region would be. As you can imagine, at this point things were moving so fast the nobody dared make a move.

During periods like this the most important thing is to stay focused and not to get hung up on the things that are outside of your control. Instead, to figure out what it is you can control and optimize as much as you can. I was lucky. I was in Malta where the sailing is amazing, I had world class training partners, and life on the island was seemingly normal. In fact, the only thing I had working against me was an increasingly nagging case of burnout. For those of you who are not within the athletics world, burnout is an athlete’s worst enemy. It is a combination of physical and mental exhaustion brought on mainly by overtraining and stress. As an athlete you become an acrobat of sorts, walking the tightrope of pushing yourself to new limits and burning out. Train too little and you won’t improve, train too much and you lose the rear end leaving yourself pointing the wrong way. At this point I was still very happy to be in Malta but ever aware of the fact that I had been training six days a week for eight and a half months having not seen my friends and family back home that whole time. I was aware that I was beginning to approach the limits of what my mind and body were capable of.

Many of you may know now that I am now back home in Toronto. In fact, as I am writing this, I am sitting in hotel isolation at the Pearson Airport Sheraton. So what is it that changed? Why was it that a week ago I was asking who the next training group coming to Malta was and now I’m stuck in a box (granted, one with a 55 inch tv and King size bed)? Well last Monday Malta went into lock down.  The irony is not lost on me that almost a year to the day after originally having the world turned upside down it happens again in almost the same fashion. At first, we thought we would be able to continue sailing through the lockdown seeing as lasers are single handed boats, but we were wrong. As it turned out we were looking at a minimum of 2 weeks ashore. Adding to this my coach Alex was headed to Oman to Coach Vishnu, an event that having no real bearing on my campaign would have been financially reckless for me to attend, meaning that even if I could sail in 2 weeks it would be without a coach and without training partners. With this in mind and knowing that I would have to go home at some point to remind myself what my parents looked like I decided that this was the best opportunity to go home I would get for a long time. I had been banking gains all winter long and now it was time for me to minimize my losses. I would need to take a break and visit home at some point, so it only made sense to do it during a time when I wouldn’t be able to be sailing any way.

So now what? Well, that’s a good question. I’m still unable to answer it with complete certainty because as we are all more than aware of by now everything is subject to change at the drop of a hat. But provisionally at least, a replacement European qualifier has been announced in Vilamora, Portugal on the 17th -20th of April. That gives me 4 weeks at home (though 2 are in quarantine) to catch up with friends and family, fill up on timmies, and reacquaint myself with what it means to be cold before heading back for some much needed racing and getting back to banking gains.

Thank you for everyone whose generosity continues to make my dream possible and I am looking forward to getting back on the water soon to show you all the progress I have made.

Cheers,

James