John Derbyshire

madforsailing talks to the man with the plan - the Olympic Team Manager

It's become clear over the past few weeks that the support programme put in place by the RYA for the British Olympic sailing team is absolutely world class. And not just in comparison to other sailing teams, this operation wouldn't embarrass any sport. The men behind it are the RYA's new Secretary General and former Racing Manager, Rod Carr, and out on the front-line, Olympic Team Manager, John Derbyshire. With the most successful British sailing team ever to grace an Olympic regatta now packing to go home, madforsailing spoke to the man at the heart of Team GBR.

mfs - the Games have obviously gone really well, but has it all gone according to plan?

JD - I’ve just been reflecting on that! The plan that we had, which essentially started four years ago and has been evolved each year that we’ve been out here, has gone exactly as I would have liked it to have gone. I don’t think I expected the results to be as good as they are, knowing the nature of sport, but in terms of planning it has gone exactly as we wanted. We have put in the coaches to provide the right level of support, both technical and moral, and to provide all the elements that the sailors wanted to make the regatta as normal as possible. I think the team has been able to concentrate on the sailing itself and it’s all gone well.

mfs - You mention the support that the team had, both technical and moral, do you feel that that was a real factor in their success at these Games?

JD - Yes. Definitely. When the accreditation rules came out for the Games and we realised that they were going to allow coach boats on the water, that was an opportunity. And I made sure with the BOA (British Olympic Association) that I had as many accredited staff as possible, and the Olympic Steering Group supported the idea that we should take the coaches as the basis of our support team. That was significantly different to Savannah, where no on-the-water support boats were allowed, and therefore we didn’t have many coaches there. Here the sailors were independent thinkers on the water, but had people at the side of the race track who wouldn’t say the wrong thing at the wrong time, and who took pressure off the sailors when they came off the water, by knowing what needed to be done and how the sailors were thinking and feeling.

All the back-up - physios, admin, press, and weather - have been amazing. They are an essential part of the support team and I’ve tried to make sure that everyone has felt part of the team. The sheer logistics have made this difficult, but I think we managed. With the physio and physiologist, those programmes have been running all the way through and we have managed to send a team here to Sydney that is in better physical and mental shape than ever before, because we’ve done so much preventative work. That is a credit to the medical back-up team. The meteorological programme has been developed over the three years and ultimately we were able to deliver the essential facts to the sailors.

mfs - Which was your favourite medal or moment?

JD - From a personal point of view, having worked with Ben Ainslie for seven years, that was fantastic to see him win a gold medal. I think that Robert Scheidt is an outstanding sailor and he and Ben have dominated the Laser scene over the last four years, and it was a fitting reward for Ben to win the gold medal. Also the way he did it, to do that level of match racing with a sailor of the Robert’s calibre is just unbelievable.

In terms of poignancy, it has to be Ian Walker and Mark Covell’s medal. I think the amount of time that they have spent sailing the Star compared to the other guys in that fleet is minimal. It was probably the toughest fleet in the whole regatta and they came together through difficult times and tragedy and they set their stall out and achieved in their own right, which was fantastic.

mfs - What happens next?

JD - We’re trying to set things up for when we get home, with some sort of welcome when the team gets off the plane, and we’ve been talking to David and Verna Houghton (Meteorologist and Team Doctor) about possibly having a reunion party at their house, which is what we did four years ago. We haven’t set a date for that yet, but it’s in the pipeline. I’d like to go through a period of de-briefing with the sailors and the support team and to see what lessons we can learn. Even though we’ve been successful, I’m sure some of the people will have views on what we can do in the future and what we can build on and incorporate into the Athens Games.

In terms of the sport; I’d really like, through the medallists who are now ambassadors for our sport, to encourage more youngsters into the world of sailing - who will have enjoyed what they’ve seen on TV and who may become future Olympians themselves.

mfs - Looking forward to Athens, how do you improve on this performance?

JD - It’s not just about bettering the results, I think we have to be realistic about the medal prospects and the people sailing the boats. One of the coaches said to me this morning, you’ve got good development programmes, you’ve taken talented sailors and moved them into Olympic classes and provided world class coaching support, combine that with good organisation and you’ve been able to produce tremendous results at these Games. We hope that we will be able to do that again, but the next generation of sailors is going to be different and whether they can emulate in their first Olympics what these sailors have done in their second or third Olympics, remains to be seen. We will have to wait and look two to three years down the line to see how we might do in Athens. I have to say that to get three golds and two silvers in one Olympic Games, with the way the sport is, is staggering. We came in with Lottery Funding and we’ve taken a quantum leap forwards and this has given the individual sailors great enthusiasm and motivation. But the rest of the world has seen what we’ve done and they will close the gap again, so that will make a difference and make it harder next time.
mfs - Hopefully after such a successful Games, the sport of sailing will be given a much higher profile. How do you feel that your success here will affect the chances of getting the money together for a British America’s Cup challenge?

JD - I’ve no doubt that the crop of sailors that we’ve got in this Olympic team are capable of winning an America’s Cup at some time in the future. Right now we don’t have any sponsors, but if results like these don’t bring any sponsors in, then I don’t know what we need to do. Any America’s Cup campaign needs to be thought through. The first attempt would really be like dipping our toe in the water and the second and third attempts, we will have learned lessons and increased our chances of bringing the Cup back to Britain. But obviously as Olympic Manager, the downside for me would be that I may well lose some of these really great Olympians to the America’s Cup programme.

mfs - Thanks John, and many congratulations to you and your team.