Athens 2004

The RYA's plans are already in full swing near the 2004 Olympic site

Heat has also played a major part in the performance of the sailors. "The big issue is drinking enough. We were taking in 5- 9 litres a day each of hypotonic fluids just to maintain our body weight," continued Newman. Obviously if you get dehydrated your performance, mentally and physically suffers a lot and it's hard to recover from. "Long days on the water are a problem if you don't drink enough, you don't put enough sun cream on, you don't try to keep in the shade where possible, even wearing a hat on the water makes a big difference. A few of us got that wrong - myself included."

The next step of the programme is to ensure the sailors have good accommodation as close as possible to the sailing venue. During the Olympics it is understood that the sailors may be required to stay in the Olympic village along with the other competing athletes, however this is a 45 minute drive across the centre of town from the sailing venue. Park commented, "It has been really hard to find decent accommodation in Athens. We have signed a contract with the sailing club for the next three years and so have been liaising with a number of people, namely ex-pats, to try and help us find the most suitable places for our sailors to stay."


For those who can't read the small print (and we can't) the sailing centre is the purple splodge one third of the way along the bottom from the left and it is just up from there.