Olympic quitter full#

'Unfortunately the bad feelings always seem to stick around longer than the better ones! This time, I’m proud that I didn’t shy away from it and truly embraced defeat.Īfter two turbulent years full of difficulties and upheaval with mind, body and soul - this is where I am right now. 'These are the moments I probably remember more than the happier ones,' she wrote on Instagram.

Olympic quitter series#

While she walked away with the world title at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019, she's since suffered a series of injuries and most recently placed eighth in the 2022 World Athletics Championships's heptathlon. He competed in the America's Cup seven times and twice circumnavigated the globe, becoming the first American skipper to win one of sailing's toughest challenges, the Whitbread Round the World Race, in 1998.Olympic heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson is, to say the least, seriously impressive.Įver since qualifying for London 2012 aged just 19 she's been in the spotlight as one of the top female members of Team GB to watch, routinely notching up victories at Olympic Games and World Championships. He competed in the Star class in Athens in 2004, finishing fifth. However, the Americans do have a solid 2024 medals hopeful in 21-year-old Daniela Moroz of San Francisco, who has won six straight world kiteboarding titles and is a three-time US Sailing Yachtswoman of the Year.Ĭayard was an alternate at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, when the Americans won three gold medals and four silvers. When he was hired, Cayard said a turnaround might not happen until the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The last American to win a sailing gold medal was Anna Tobias, who went by Anna Tunnicliffe when she won it in the 2008 Beijing Games.

They avoided a second straight shutout in 2016 thanks to Caleb Paine, who won the bronze in the Finn class, but then were blanked again in Tokyo. He declined, and we respect his decision.'Ĭayard replaced Page four months before the rescheduled Tokyo Games, when the United States failed to win a medal while watching the well-funded British team win five, including three golds, to surpass the Americans for the most in history, 64.Īmericans failed to medal in the 2012 London Games, their first whitewash since 1936. In an email to the AP, US Sailing board president Richard Jepsen said Cayard 'was offered the ability to continue to support the team by, among other things, providing valuable input into its direction and leading the important fundraising efforts. I wish our USA athletes great success and I always will be there for them.'Ĭayard said he raised $18 million since he was hired and was working to restructure the Olympic trials to reduce burdens on American sailors. I am grateful to those who supported this mission with me. I am not a quitter, but I do know when it is time to go. The new structure is not what I signed up for, nor something I am willing to be part of. 'Unfortunately, the current board of US Sailing recently restructured the Olympic Department, including my role as executive director. 'While this was my greatest challenge, I am very proud of my team and what we achieved to date. Olympic Sailing Team, with the goal of getting Team USA back on the podium,' Cayard said in a statement Saturday to The Associated Press.

'In March of 2021, I accepted the position as head of the U.S. Why the best triathlete in history is making the unlikeliest of comebacks.The United States has won just one medal in the past three Olympics - a bronze in 2016 - and has been overtaken by Britain on the all-time sailing medals table. Cayard was hired in March 2021 to replace Australian Malcolm Page, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was forced out after less than three years on the job. This is the second time in less than two full Olympic cycles that a highly successful sailor has left the position. He said he was told just minutes before a board of directors meeting that he would be asked to focus on fundraising while someone else ran the team.Ĭayard leaves less than 1½ years before the Paris Olympics, with the American team mired in an unfathomable slump that started long before he took over in March 2021. Olympic Sailing Team, the latest upheaval for a once-dominant squad that has become an afterthought on the world stage.Ĭayard, one of America's most successful sailors, said Saturday that he couldn't work under a restructuring of the Olympic team's management. SAN DIEGO - Paul Cayard has resigned as executive director of the U.S.