Never mind the bollocks

We talk to US sailor Kevin Hall about his Olympic Finn campaign and his incredible fight with testicular cancer

Kevin Hall may have qualified for the Olympic Games, but he doesn’t yet know if he is going to be allowed to compete in Athens this August. Having only taken up Finn sailing last May, 34-year-old Hall has already climbed a mountain just to win the US Finn Trials in Fort Lauderdale in February. A singleminded approach to the task has got him this far, but his next hurdle is of an altogether different nature.

Hall knows that if he is submitted to a drugs test during the Olympic regatta, the testers will detect an abnormally high level of testosterone in his body. And testosterone is a banned substance. Abnormally high levels of testosterone were at the centre of the Ben Johnson scandal which led to the Canadian sprinter being stripped of 100 Metres Gold in 1988, and his subsequent life ban from the sport following a second offence in 1993.

Johnson was using testosterone for performance enhancing purposes. Hall’s use of testosterone is altogether more innocent, and his story altogether more inspiring than Johnson’s descent into darkness. It was back in 1990, and the young sailor from Rhode Island was still studying at college when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. “I saw myself as a regular college guy,” he says. “I was absolutely terrified in the beginning when I was first diagnosed.”

So serious and urgent was the diagnosis, that Hall was flown overnight from Rhode Island to the other side of the United States for emergency surgery in Los Angeles and had one testicle removed. Hall was strongly advised to undergo a further procedure of abdominal cleansing, but this would have meant him missing the Collegiate Singlehanded Championship being held in Lasers in Michigan. There was a 2 per cent risk of the cancer recurring by foregoing the surgical procedure, but Hall saw that as an acceptable risk. Missing the Championships was not. Here is the first sign that Hall was - and is - a bit more than a “regular college guy”.

Having completed college, Hall thought he would have a late run at the US Olympic Trials in the Finn for the Barcelona Games in 1992. “It was only a four-month campaign, so I had no real ambitions to win the trials, just to learn from the process.” But the selection of the Laser as a new Olympic Class for the Atlanta Games in 1996 really made him sit up and take notice. The Laser was the boat in which he had excelled at college and national level. “I had big plans for the 1993 World Championships, but that’s when I got the second cancer.” Hall, like the medical experts, initially assumed it was a recurrence of the earlier cancer but he says the two cases were medically unconnected. A rare case of lightning striking twice.

The removal of his second testicle was the only safe option, but for Hall this represented his darkest hour, the moment that he would have to face not being able to father his own children. It would also mean that he could no longer produce his own testosterone. “Testosterone is one of the primary hormones for muscular development and emotional well being,” he explains. For the past 11 years he has relied on weekly injections of artificial testosterone to maintain his health.

This is where his problem with the Olympics arises. There appears to be no direct precedent in any Olympic sport for allowing an athlete to take testosterone, and Hall remains unclear even about from which organisation he should be seeking dispensation. “I’ve got dispensation from ISAF to compete at international regattas up to the Games,” he says, “and I’m hoping to get that renewed for Athens.” He says ISAF have been very supportive throughout but that it is uncertain whether he requires further clearance from the International Olympic Committee or the World Anti Doping Agency. Under the circumstances, however, it is hard to see Hall being denied his place in the Games.

But back to the early 90s, and following the second cancer attack, Hall decided to take some time out in Colorado, getting his head together and taking a break from sailing. Hall describes this period as one of “emotional convalescence”, one that he spent reading a lot of books, doing a lot of cycling and rollerblading up down the mountain roads.

He emerged from this sabbatical rejuvenated and also extremely fit, but now his preparation time for the Laser campaign was limited. “I spent the year leading up to the ’96 trials feeling like I had a lot of catching up to do,” he says. With the benefit of hindsight and experience, Hall admits that it was as much his paranoia of having missed out on training time as the lost time itself, which accounted for a disappointing fifth place at the Laser trials. Nick Adamson won the trials easily, largely thanks to some awesome downwind pace, although he failed to convert this to medal success in the Olympic regatta at Savannah.

Hall put the disappointment of the Lasers behind him by taking a completely new direction - skiff sailing. “I had the good fortune of having two good and talented friends in Morgan Larson and Mark Mendelblatt and we did a season of sailing the 18-foot skiff in the UK and Australia.” This stood him in good stead for the selection of a new Olympic class for the Sydney Olympiad, in the form of the 49er two-man skiff. Hall teamed up with Larson for his most dedicated and long-term Olympic campaign, and they showed serious intent with Bronze Medals at three successive 49er World Championships, as well as a Silver at the Pre-Olympic Regatta.

But for US selection they were up against the skilled and experienced McKee brothers, with Jonathan having won Gold in the Flying Dutchman in 1984 and crew Charlie having won 470 Bronze in 1988. The McKees won a close fought trials and went on to win a Bronze together in Sydney. Never one to stand still for long, however, Hall would team up with Larson and the McKees to form part of the OneWorld America’s Cup squad. Hall had received his first taste of the Cup with AmericaOne, and was keen to get back in again, this time as navigator.

Hall had had no previous experience as a navigator but leapt at the chance to learn. “I was very fortunate to be offered such a challenging position, and to be working with two other guys who are so talented, Mark Chisnell and Masanobu Katori. I think we worked well together, and stopped each other going down too many blind alleys.”

But with OneWorld knocked out of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Auckland, Hall turned his attention to the next possible project. The Olympics beckoned once more, and Hall dabbled in Star sailing until he realised the cost and logistical implications would probably have made it impractical. “I’d finished third in the 2001 North Americans, and I’d heard so much about Star sailing that I really wanted to give it a go, but it really is an enormous undertaking.” So he settled on the Finn.

After coming so close to Olympic selection in the 49er the previous time, it begs the question why Hall didn’t choose to pick up where he left off with his helmsman Morgan Larson. Hall admits: “It was an agonising decision. But Morgan and I were already on the upper end of the weight range, and when we took a look at the new Pryde sails which came out a couple of years ago, they looked flatter than the Norths we’d been used to. So that was two nails in the coffin for that idea.”

Asked whether the enormous number of different of Olympic classes Hall has chosen over the years is a sign of attention deficit disorder, he laughs, and admits that he derives as much enjoyment from the learning process as from the competition. “Morgan and I enjoy exploring new ideas, which was maybe another reason we didn’t go back to the 49er. I really enjoying learning new skills, which is maybe why I haven’t achieved excellence in any one area.”

So, the Finn it was, a demanding boat with which he had enjoyed only the briefest of acquaintances back in 1992. “I got it just before Spa Regatta last May, and I must admit that after a couple of days of that regatta I was wondering just what on earth I had got myself into. I didn’t even bother to count the capsises at Spa. I was cold and wet and back in the 50s, and I realised my legs had completely forgotten what hiking was about.”

Fortunately, he ignored those early misgivings and worked hard over the summer of 2003 to improve his game. By the World Championships in Cadiz in September, he had improved sufficiently to finish 27th and qualify the USA for a place at the Olympics. This represented a dramatic improvement since Spa, but hardly anything to set the world alight.

After a frenetic summer of regattas around Europe, moving back to the US for the winter represented a chance to get some serious training hours under his belt. He moved to Fort Lauderdale, which would give him a chance to acquaint himself with the same wave and wind conditions that would decide the US trials in February. With limited time, Hall knew he couldn’t expect to work on all his weaknesses in the way he would have liked, but says he drew on past Olympic campaigns to help him prioritise the most important goals. “I remembered back to the Laser trials in ’96 when Nick Adamson was so much faster downwind,” he says. “The thing is, you can work really hard on your upwind technique and your rig tune, and if you get it right you might be 10 boat lengths ahead of the other guy by the windward mark. If you can improve your downwind technique, you could be talking about gains of 300 metres.”

So Hall adopted an unorthodox training style, often spending a whole day on downwind sailing. “I would sail from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, or Miami to Fort Lauderdale, depending on which way the wind was blowing,” he explains. These downwind 25+ mile voyages would take him between four and seven hours depending on the wind strength, while he would get his sailing friends or sometimes even his wife Amanda or his mother to drive the trailer round to meet him at the other end.

“It was hard to see any progress at first,” says Hall, “but after the first four or five times I started to get better at it.” There was plenty else he would love to have worked on in the precious few months before the trials, but Hall was banking on his downwind practice to pull him through.

He must have been wondering if he should have done a bit more starting practice as Heat 1 of the US Olympic Trials began in February. “I started embarrassingly conservatively, in the third row of two,” he laughs. But his downwind pace was pulling him through, and he won the first four races in winds of 14-18 knots. When the wind dropped light, he scored a couple of fourth places, which Hall was disappointed with. But he was relieved to discover his opposition had been even less consistent and he extended his lead further. Hall had signed up his friend (and 49er nemesis) Charlie McKee to coach him for the regatta, and McKee helped Hall keep any minor setbacks in perspective. “You increased your lead today, and if you increase your lead every day, you’ll win,” observed McKee, usefully. With advice like that, how could Hall fail?

Hall had a couple more shaky moments, including losing a protest to closet rival Geoff Ewenson, but by the end of the trials he had built up a healthy points margin, 26 to runner-up Ewenson’s 53. It was a staggering victory for someone who had been in the class just nine months.

But the USA has not been at the vanguard of Finn sailing for quite some time, and the next test was to see just how domestic success could convert into performance on the tougher international stage. With the trials clashing with the Finn Gold Cup down in Rio recently, Hall’s first opportunity to measure progress was at the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta in Palma a couple of weeks ago. With former British Finn sailor James Lyne coaching Hall, he wanted to use the regatta as a gauge of his downwind ability. “Every day I got towed out early so I could do a couple of runs before the start,” he says.

Downwind, Hall was relieved to find he was now very competitive, and it was largely this skill that enabled him to finish 8th in a very high quality fleet. But there are many more areas he would like to cover before Athens in August. “I came out of Palma knowing fitness would be a glaring issue, and it was! But building up your legs for hiking is such a special kind of fitness, it takes a long time.”

As for technical development, generally thought to be a huge ingredient for success in the Finn, Hall has barely scratched the surface. He has bought standard kit and just got on with the sailing, although he hopes Lyne will help him make some advances in the coming months. Compared with someone like Ben Ainslie, Hall knows he is woefully underprepared, and yet he has made huge strides in a short time.

“Everyone says they want to win the Gold Medal. I’d be happy to win any medal. But my personal goal is to sail well whilst coping with my issues.” After his weekly testosterone top-up, Hall is at the peak of his physical and emotional well being, but by the last couple of days before his next injection he can feel drained. He says experience has taught him ways of getting through these dark moments, but he is clearly concerned about having “a bad seventh day” during the Games.

It is being on this weekly emotional and physical testosterone-driven rollercoaster that prevents Hall from considering any offshore projects such as taking in part in a Volvo Ocean Race. “I wouldn’t want to put myself through that, much as I would love to do a Volvo. I would be too much of a risk to myself and to my team mates.” But the prospect of another Cup campaign certainly appeals, and Hall’s navigation skills will doubtless secure him a position with one of the top teams.

But until August he is focused on doing himself justice in Athens. Whether that is standing on the podium is too soon to say, but Hall’s tenacity and personal courage make his story an inspiring one, whatever the outcome.