Annette Duetz and Odile van Aanholt won a gold medal for the Netherlands in the women’s skiff sailing event at the Olympics in France on Friday. However, they nearly blew their victory by stopping well short of the finish line during a race that they led from the start!
It was almost the worst choke job of the year.
While the majority of the events at this summer’s Games take place in Paris, all of the sailing events are taking place on the Mediterranean Sea in Marseille. The venue is absolutely beautiful.
As is with any sailing competition, winds are subject to shift in/on the Marseille Marina. Constantly. And when the winds change, so does the course. Officials move the buoys to keep the boats moving instead of sitting dead in the water. Skiff sailing in particular is extremely difficult and uneventful if the course is not properly positioned to go with the win.
A slight change to the finish line on Friday nearly led to disaster for Dutch duo.
Duetz and van Aanholt trailed the French team by just one point in the women’s skiff competition after 12 races. The podium was to be decided by the 13th and final race.
Netherlands got out to a dominant start. They were way out in front as they crossed what they thought was the finish line. Duetz and van Aanholt dropped their spinnaker and came back around ever so slightly to watch the other boats finish behind them.
But it wasn’t the finish line…
It was a bit crazy because we crossed the finish line and we didn’t hear a horn so we knew something was wrong.
— Odile van Aanholt
The Dutch boat was at a complete stop in the water as Sweden and Italy pushed past them to secure first and second in the race. Not only was the Netherlands’ gold medal in jeopardy, the podium was starting to slip away. It was almost a disaster.
Fortunately, Duetz and van Aanholt were somehow able to recover enough speed to get back on-course and slowly creeped their way between the correct marks.
They barely edged out New Zealand for a third-place finish in the race after a moment of sudden panic.
We are very happy with our resilience there. We were super quick as a team to say ‘Okay, this is plan B, let’s go.’ We couldn’t have done it any better in the end. So it’s just a relief. I’m very, very happy.”
— Odile van Aanholt
By (barely) finishing third in the final race of the day, the Dutch pair was able to secure a gold medal in the overall competition. The celebration was on!
Anything less than third likely would have dropped them to silver. Instead, the Swedes and France rounding out the Olympics skiff sailing podium by a matter of two and five points, respectively.