With the start of the Olympic Year now underway. I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with British Sailing Team windsurfer Sam Sills. Sam is sailing into his first Olympic year, with a gold medal in his sights at the Paris 2024 games, after he was selected to represent Team Great Britain at this years Olympic Games in Paris. I find out how his prep is going for the World Championships '24 in Lanzarote (racing starts on Monday next week) and how the early prep is going for the Olympics? Sam Sills; an Olympic Effort gives us an insight into the mental, physical and sailing miles that go into making a world class sailor. You never know you may catch a glimpse of the GB windsurfers at The Official Test Centre as we are so lucky that our centre is based within the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) where the team train when in the UK!
By Emma Nicholson
How is training going for the World Championships?
Sam said: "Personally I am not super happy with how it is going actually, I am facing quite a lot of challenges and I don't feel at all prepared, where I would like to be and it is a bit difficult to manage. I will try and do the best I can and try and be ready to race and give everything I can to be ready on the start line for the Worlds."
Now we are in 2024 and it is the Olympic year; what is your build up like for the Olympics?
Sam said: "It is a long build up, we have a lot of training, we will spend as much time as possible in Marseille come Spring time, it is really about preparing physically, preparing the equipment and preparing mentally and hopefully have a long build up to then have a peak in the Summer."
Physically how are you preparing?
Sam said: "Physically we are doing a lot of sailing, a lot of strength work, core and yoga and stretching, to just to be able to keep the body going for such a long time. When you are far away from the season you do a lot of hours low intensity and then the closer you get to the events you start to ramp it up and race more to get the heart rate high and get exposed to that. At the moment we are still in base phase but it is kinda weird because we have the Worlds, so it is a strange time of year."
Mentally how are you preparing?
Sam said: "Mentally I am just trying to be quite organised for the year, so just trying to take away any noise and externally stresses as you can and do everything you can so when you get there on the day you are in the best place you possibly can and left no stone unturned and you are ready to go and listen to some good music that's always good."
If Sam has inspired you to start your own windsurfing journey, how about booking a windsurfing taster at The Official Test Centre, call the centre 07817 717904 or book online https://otc-watersports.com/windsurfing-tuition/