TeamGB Interview: Olympic Sailing Coach Stevie Morrison

On the eve of the 2024 Olympics, Georgie Corlett-Pitt talks to TeamGB coach Stevie Morrison as the Sailing events enter a new era…

The sporting spectacular that is the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is about to begin – (and yes, it has come round fast, thanks to 2020’s pandemic postponement) – with sailing one of 32 sports, set to contested 10 medal events. The Olympic waters lie over 400 miles south of Paris off Marseille, with its €50m newly re-developed marina, banks of stadium seating and sandy beach backdrops. Tricky conditions await, with wind and sea state both highly variable thanks to an unpredictable range of Mistral winds, sea breezes and of course the sweeping topography of the bay, which can all variously come into play. 

The addition of kiteboarding (men’s and women’s Formula Kite) and foiling windsurfing (men’s and women’s iQFOil) means five of those medals will now be fought for on foils; expect all-out action, with the kites especially ‘shredding’ the race course at blistering speeds of up to 50mph on this, their debut Olympic appearance. The windsurfers meanwhile have developed hugely since their first inclusion in 1984. Together with the Nacra 17 foiling cat (introduced 2016), they will give ‘Sailing’ at this Games an altogether different look and feel – certainly a far cry from when the sport was very first included at the 1900 Paris Olympics. 

British Sailing Team Coach Stevie Morrison says: “There will be a lot of readers saying ‘it’s not sailing’ and it’s definitely not Finn sailing, I can assure you of that, but you still have to make the same decisions, you’ve just got a fraction of a second to make it. You still worry about starting the leg on the long tack, and you still worry about good laylines and counting your manoeuvres and being accurate with your positioning. 

“It is more like the America’s Cup and SailGP nowadays, with a lot more set-play type sailing, rather than 15 or 20 tacks upwind – you can’t afford those, that’s for sure – but you’re still making the same decisions and you can still look at it like a boat – it’s still a sail and a sailor, it’s just happening really quickly.” 

For Stevie coaching the kiteboarding forms a sharp contrast to when he himself competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, finishing ninth and fifth in the 49er class with crew Ben Rhodes. That that class – and the 49erFX women’s class – now seems relatively pedestrian by comparison is a mark of progress across the sport. 

“I thought the 49er was the coolest boat there was,” he smiles. “They still look pretty cool and they’re still fast and fun, but when you go past them in your RIB they almost look like they’re a turning mark for the kites because they’re going so slowly relative to the kites. That’s how impressive the new kit is.”

A New Dynamic

He says the new classes also add another dynamic thanks to their alternative semi-final/final formats, making medal predictions much harder to call. “It comes down to one short race and it’s very condition dependent. If you excel in those particular conditions on that one day, then you could go from 10th to first, and that’s quite different to sailing in the past. And in Marseille, we could get a light sea breeze week, a very windy-wavy week, or a shifty up and down week.” 

Being in with a chance of a medal has meant training for every condition. Added pressure comes from the schedule, which this Games has no laydays interspersed, with each fleet’s racing compressed into just a few days, giving a high possibility that racing for any given fleet could be dominated by a singular weather pattern. With four course areas offering very distinctive conditions that vary with wind direction, racing in Marseille will be a true test. “It’s going to be an intense few days that’s for sure,” says Stevie.

“Mentally you need to be prepared for anything and comfortable with not being comfortable.” 

In all, some 330 sailors will compete. This Games marks another first with equal numbers of male and female sailors for the first time. Both the Nacra 17 and the 470 are now raced as mixed classes – for the 470 a nod to its roots when it was raced as an ‘open’ class from 1976-84. 

There’s no change however to the men’s and women’s singlehanders, the ILCA7 (Laser and ILCA6 (Laser Radial), which complete the class line-up. They will have the biggest fleets, with 43 boats in each. 

Around 65 nations will be represented – a marked step up in diversity thanks to the IOC’s Tripartite Commission, and fed by the ongoing success of World Sailing’s Emerging Nations programme. 

One of the charms of the Olympic sailing is that it allows feats of individual athletes to come to light. The new kite classes have certainly opened doors, enabling, for example, two athletes to represent Mauritius, which previously had only once ever sent a sailor. It’s a chance to go from dream to reality too for Antigua’s Tiger Tyson, aiming to bring home his country’s first ever Olympic medal in any sport. Tiger will no doubt look to the likes of Pavlos Kontides, who was Cyprus’ first ever athlete to medal for his country at London 2012 with a silver in the ILCA7 (then Laser); now Pavlos will be back competing at Paris, his fifth Games.  

A Place in History

There will plenty of experienced Olympians looking carve their place in history by repeating podium places at this Games, the likes of reigning Olympic champions Aussie Matt Wearn (ILCA7), Italy’s Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti, Brazil’s Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze with double golds (49erFX), and triple Olympic medallist Marit Bouwmeester (NED, ILCA6) – to name a few. 

While France, Germany and Great Britain are the only countries with athletes in all 10 events, other nations out in force include New Zealand, China, Italy, Spain and the US, each fielding sailors in nine classes. 

France, of course, poses the biggest threat – well-funded, with a home-waters advantage and a great depth of experience in the new foiling classes. 

These heavyweight nations will no doubt share the same goal of taking the British team’s title as the most successful sailing nation; with a total of 64 medals, including 31 golds it’s an accolade they have held for the past five of six Olympics, after a superb haul in Tokyo of three golds (Giles Scott, Finn, Hannah Mills/Eilidh McIntyre, 470, Dylan Fletcher-Scott/Stuart Bithell, 49er), a silver (John Gimson/Anna Burnet (Nacra 17) and a bronze (Emma Wilson, RS:X).

New Faces

This time, TeamGB’s chosen sailors represent a mixture of experienced Olympians and fresh new talent. John Gimson/Anna Burnet (Nacra 17), Emma Wilson (iQFOil) and two-time Olympian Saksia Tidey (49erFX crew) are all tipped to do well, while Olympic debutants include Freya Black (49erFX helm), James Peters/Fynn Sterritt (49er), Sam Sills (iQFOil), Ellie Aldridge (Formula Kite) and Micky Beckett (ILCA7); the latter two athletes among the strongest medal contenders.     

TeamGB announced this initial squad of 10 sailors last autumn. Early selection has given a lengthy runway to focus on preparations – a critical move against the established French team and a clear statement of intent. 

The remaining TeamGB sailors had to wait until the calendar flipped into 2024 to get the nod.

Silver at the 470 World Championships in March granted Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube their spot. At 22, Vita is the youngest team member, while Chris is a two-time Olympian (competing at both Rio and Tokyo, finishing fifth both times). The pair teamed up only last summer, mixing raw talent with experience. Chris explained they have worked “tirelessly” to prove their capabilities, despite injury and their short run up, while Vita said: “It gives me goosebumps knowing that I’m going to be a part of the biggest sporting spectacle on earth.”

In the ILCA6, it’s been a long voyage for Hannah Snellgrove after her teammates pushed her hard for selection, which she finally clinched with a 10th at the 2024 Worlds. Having campaigned hard for several cycles, she described selection as “the biggest honour” while Mark Robinson, Team GB Sailing Team Leader and RYA Performance Director, praised Hannah’s “immense inner drive.”

The final ticket went to kiter Connor Bainbridge, who overturned a series of unexpectedly poor performances to take European bronze and follow with a dominant win at World Sailing’s Last Chance Regatta in Hyères. It was something of a relief for Conor to secure his spot for Paris with a medal race to spare, while Mark Robinson said he had shown “true grit and determination” in becoming the last of the GBR squad to qualify, adding it was “fantastic” for TeamGB to have once again have representatives in all 10 Olympic classes. 

Promising Signs for Olympic Sailing

Since selection, the British squad has been extremely busy, training hard to tick off personal development goals and notching up podium places at various events: world championship silvers have put Nacra 17 duo Gimson and Burnet, windsurfer Emma Wilson and kiter Ellie Aldridge in great positions to convert to gold when it matters in Marseille, while Micky Beckett topped a bronze at the ILCA7 Worlds with a win at the Princess Sofia Regatta from a 200-strong fleet and with a day to spare. 

It’s promising stuff, and comes on the back of a successful Olympic sailing Test Event in Marseille last July, where the Brits were second only to the French with four silver and one bronze. Second in the overall medal table may not seem ideal, but as Mark Robinson told STYY at the time, it throws down a marker in the sand and provides a framework for improvement. 

Peaking at the right time is everything when it comes to securing Olympic sailing medals.

GBR as a nation is tipped to top their fourth overall rank at Tokyo, and it’s likely that sailors will make a significant contribution to that. 

TeamGB sailors will have spent the final few weeks training hard in Marseille, returning to the UK briefly for a TeamGB uniform day and some final kit development before heading out again for one final camp ahead of the Games. 

For Stevie, who works closely with kiter Ellie Aldridge, that time has been spent keeping one eye on her biggest rival, reigning Formula Kite world champion, Lauriane Nolot (FRA), while also moding foils, getting into sync with weather patterns and finessing fitness. A huge amount of this is now driven by data analysis – much more like the America’s Cup says Stevie, and again, a far cry from the days of doing things by feel.

One thing that remains the same is the strength in depth of the British sailing squad, and support staff, who bring a huge amount of experience between them. Stevie counts the likes of Iain Percy, Stu Bithell, Joe Glanfield and Chris Draper among his fellow coaches, while having a pool of talented training partners available in the British squad cuts out the logistics of having to rely on other nations.   

As the clock ticks down to the first start, what words of wisdom will Stevie share with Ellie as she sets off for the line? “It’s just a sailing race, just a start line as you’ve seen before. Embrace it, enjoy the moment, but don’t lose sight of the fact that it’s the basics and the simple things that are going to matter. Do the controllable things that you can do really well, try your best, but keep it simple and don’t think you can do something magic.” 

Olympic Sailing: Meet the team

• John Gimson and Anna Burnet – Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17)
• James Peters and Fynn Sterritt – Men’s Skiff (49er)
• Freya Black and Saskia Tidey – Women’s Skiff (49erFX)
• Emma Wilson – Women’s Windsurfing (iQFOiL)
• Sam Sills – Men’s Windsurfing (iQFOiL)
• Ellie Aldridge – Women’s Kite (Formula Kite)
• Connor Bainbridge – Men’s Kite (Formula Kite)
• Michael Beckett – Men’s Dinghy (ILCA 7)
• Hannah Snellgrove – Women’s Dinghy (ILCA 6)
• Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube – Mixed Dinghy (470)

Watching the Games

The Olympic sailing takes place over 12 consecutive days, from 28 July to 8 August beginning with the iQFOil and 49er/49erFX, while the kites have the most nerve wracking wait until Sunday 4, their medal races the last to wrap up on 8 August.  Each fleet has reserve day at the end of their series. 

If you’re lucky you will have bagged official tickets to watch the Olympic sailing from Marseille Marina, which officially opens on 20 July. The venue was used in the Olympic torch relay when the flame arrived in the company of 1000+ spectator boats. 

For those watching back in Blighty, the BBC is your best bet, with coverage on the BBC, iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport website. There is also live streaming of every sport available via Olympics.com. 

Race lengths vary considerably – from the blink-and-you’ll-miss it sub-5 minute windsurfing sprints, to their 90 minute marathon. The dinghies and cats meanwhile have a more conventional 30-45 minute race window. 

Race times are spread throughout the afternoon, so don’t expect any action before midday local time but with starts as late as 5pm.

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