Environment
MARTA rail cars succeed as haven for sea lifeAugust 7, 2024
By David Pendered
Aug. 13 — The first-place finish Sunday by a Dutch skipper who delivered her first child last summer showed that, even after recent childbirth, Marit Bouwmeester remains one of the world’s elite competitive sailors.
Bouwmeester, 35, rose to the challenge laid down by writers for the International Olympic Committee in their breathless build-up to a regatta that is a premier qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The event and continues through Sunday, Aug. 20 in North Sea waters off The Hague.
An IOC press release named Bouwmeester as “among the most anticipated athletes at the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Champtionships.” The hype didn’t stop there.
Bouwmeester’s win at this year’s European Championships marked “her comeback after giving birth to her first child,” just a year ago. Adding to the pressure, the report noted, “She’s now determined to replicate her success on the global stage in the Woman’s Dinghy event.”
The challenge is daunting.
The Laser Radial boat Bouwmeester races is a pocket rocket, weighing just 130 pounds and powered by a single sail measuring 62 square feet. Incredible core strength is needed to keep the boat upright against the wind. Skippers sit on a narrow deck and hook their feet into toe straps to hold themselves in the boat as they lean out over the water.
Bouwmeester didn’t disappoint in the first race.
She fought her way from a position trailing USA skipper Charlotte Rose, lagging Rose by 24 seconds at the first mark and 29 seconds at the second. Bouwmeester took control at the third mark and sailed to a 26-second lead over the second-place finisher, Danish skipper Anne-Marie Rindom.
The rest of the Top 10 finishers trailed Bouwmeester by as much as 78 seconds.
Bouwmeester made her mark in the second of two fleets of Laser Radials that raced Sunday. The overall fleet of single-handed women’s dinghies is so large, 109 boats, it was divided into two fleets that compete in two separate races. Bouwmeester’s top competitor in first race of the other fleet was Swedish skipper Josefin Olsson, 33, who dominated her race by arriving first at each of six markers.
The two have history.
Olsson took a silver medal in the Tokyo Olmpics. Bouwmeester won the bronze.
Still, Bouwmeester is the most-decorated woman Olympic sailor. She’s a triple medal holder from the last three Olympics, all in the Laser Radial — bronze in Tokyo, gold in Rio de Janeiro and silver in London. She’s also a two time world champion in the Laser Radial, in 2011 and 2014.
Both Bouwmeester and Olsson struggled in the second of the two races Sunday. Each finished outside the Top 10 in their second race. In overall rankings, Olsson stands at 7th place and Bouwmeester at 12th place — in a fleet of 109 boats. Eight races remain.
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