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PAYNE HICKS BEACH LLP 10 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London WC2A 3QG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7465 4300 Fax : +44 (0) 7465 4400 DX 40 London/Chancery Lane British Sailing Team Blog: Nick Dempsey 18 August 2011 October 2011 It’s been a landmark month for the British sailing team as we were the first athletes to be named for Team GB for London 2012. For the last two Games I’ve been in what I think is actually a bit of a bonus situation in that I haven’t really had to worry about selection; both campaigns have always been about trying to win Olympic gold. You have different goals in the years before the Games, like performing well at the Olympic venue. But ultimately it’s all about peaking for the Games and being able to concentrate solely on that, and not having to hit qualification landmarks along the way can help. You can burn out if you always have to sail at the top of your abilities to get selected. The day our selection was announced was really nice. All the sailors who were named spent the day in London doing loads of media interviews and although it was a long day the exposure the sport received was absolutely massive. For me the scale of media attention felt a bit like when I got back from Athens 2004 after winning my bronze, and hopefully it’s given us a taste of things to come for 2012. I’ve never had to do a big press conference before, with us all sitting up on stage and people firing questions at you. It did become a bit like the Ben Ainslie Show, which we all expected it would be, but I’m always happy to let him answer all the questions because he is a right pro at it now! You don’t realise it at the time of your selection but the minute you become an Olympian you are in the situation where you, as a result, are seen as a role model and you have to take that responsibility seriously I think. At the end of September I spent two days at an RYA Volvo Zone Championships, for the country’s up- and-coming junior sailors. It’s only doing something like that you really appreciate how much influence you can have as an Olympic athlete and how much the kids look up to you. I remember being exactly the same when I was 12 and although I didn’t have any one inspirational role model that stood out for me, I always loved meeting people who were at the top of their game. To be able to lose yourself in their world for a couple of days is pretty cool. Nothing has changed since Payne Hicks Beach LLP www.phb.co.uk PAYNE HICKS BEACH LLP 10 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London WC2A 3QG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7465 4300 Fax : +44 (0) 7465 4400 DX 40 London/Chancery Lane I was a kid; they’ve got their whole lives ahead of them and can be whatever they want to be. Kids are kids; some are really quiet when they meet you, some are really polite, some are extra cheeky. It is brilliant fun being able to muck in with them all. Even now there are still people I look up to as athletes. They may not be sailors but I really admire Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer for the success they have both achieved, and the manner in which they have achieved it. They are both incredibly talented, work insanely hard and are great to watch. But it is the sportsmanship they show all the time I really like. I’ve been testing out Volvo’s new sailing app this month. It has got loads of Olympic windsurfing and sailing information, videos and tips from people like me, Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, the 470 girls Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills, the women’s Match Racing team and Paralympian Helena Lucas. There are also a few behind-the-scenes videos and you can watch and learn as I cook some superb steaks on a BBQ! I love apps, I’m a bit of a geek in that way! I’m obsessed with my eBay app; I’ve always been a good eBay buyer but recently I’ve started selling too! There are also a few apps that have become an important part of my training programme. I have weather and tide apps and Windguru for wind information. There is also an app we have started using recently called Restwise, where first thing in the morning I enter information about how well I slept, my resting heart rate, any illness I may feel, the colour of my urine, mood level and willingness to train. My coaches can then log into the information and get an idea of how I’m feeling and plan our day around it before we even meet up. It just gives them a snapshot of where I am at and how hard I’m likely to be able to be pushed. On the Volvo Sailing app there is a picture of me when I was 13 with my first ever sponsor, from the shop at our local sailing club, and it reminded me of the massive part that sponsorship has played in me being able to sustain my career to the level I have. Sponsorship is the hardest thing to get, yet there is little science behind it. You can either forget about it, get out there train hard, do your best and hope that things look after themselves or you can spend hours sending thousands of letters to every single person with a nice car you see! Neither way is more proven as being more successful than the other. But I’ve always been a big believer that good results stand you in good stead and when you win an Olympic medal that puts you up another level. Shops are the best place to go if you’re just starting out; they often help out with bits of kit. Then it’s all about people you and your parents know. At that stage people aren’t looking for any financial gain they just want to be involved. Don’t shoot above your weight by writing to Coca Cola! I’m in the middle of a really hard five weeks in the gym and am knackered! But it feels really good seeing your body’s capacity to deal with fatigue and pain develop as you push yourself harder and harder. August 2011 I've now had a few days to reflect on my performance and silver medal at the Olympic Test Event and I'm still as pleased with it now as I was when I crossed the finish line. I sailed really well throughout the event and it was always going to come down to a few points between myself and Dorian van Rijsselberge as to who was going to get gold. Having been neck and neck for the whole regatta, he edged ahead on the final race of the fleet racing, Payne Hicks Beach LLP www.phb.co.uk PAYNE HICKS BEACH LLP 10 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, London WC2A 3QG Telephone: +44 (0)20 7465 4300 Fax : +44 (0) 7465 4400 DX 40 London/Chancery Lane which given the unbelievably gusty and random nature of the wind on the Nothe course, was always going to be an opportunity for one of us to put some points over the other. It wasn't going to be about boat speed, and it was going to be very difficult to sail a conservative race. In the end he managed to get a shift that saw him finish two places ahead of me in that race, giving me a seven-point gap to overcome in the medal race. I executed my plan for the medal race really well but unfortunately the Greek sailor fell in on a tack, which meant Dorian moved up a place in the medal race and there wasn't the number of sailors I needed between he and I for me to win the gold. However, it is another medal for me at the Olympic venue with less than a year to go before the Games. Skandia Sail for Gold and the Test Event were my two priority events for this year and I've won a gold and silver at each so I've got to be pleased about that. But with the way that Dorian was sailing at the Test Event I know exactly what I have to do to keep improving and be the best when it counts next summer, and me and my coach Barrie are all over it. The whole event was a big learning experience for everyone. Some of the race management was a little bit strange at times but I'd rather they used the Test Event to have tried these things out than wait until the actual Games. In terms of Weymouth and Portland performing as an Olympic venue, there is not really an awful lot that could go wrong. As long as the sailors have someone to park their boats and the windsurfers have a tent for their boards we are happy! I've got two weeks off now, spending time with the family on holiday in the West Country, which is lovely. I've not seen a lot of Sarah and Thomas in the past few weeks because we were in the locked down team camp before and during the event and obviously throughout the event you are completely focussing on the job at hand.

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