SAN DIEGO (AP)– Two-time gold medalist Malcolm Page is out as chief of Olympic cruising for the U.S. nationwide team less than a year prior to the Tokyo Games.
U.S. Cruising stated in a declaration Thursday that it and Page, an Australian, “have actually concurred to part methods.”
Contacted by phone, US Cruising CEO Jack Gierhart declined to define why Page obviously was pushed out, saying, “I’m not going to speak about the past. We’re focused on looking forward.”
Asked if Page was fired, Gierhart stated: “I’m not going there.”
While guarded in his remarks, Page– who personally won more medals for Australia in two Olympics than the entire U.S. group has in the last 2 games– seemed to indicate it wasn’t his option to leave.
” I was available in with a strong vision and undoubtedly I’m dissatisfied that I will not be around to see it through,” Page told The Associated Press. “I think there have actually been some strong developments in this quadrennium and I guess I was excited for the athletes. The potential in this location is big. I’ve always seen that. All the pieces of the puzzle are here.”
Page said part of his vision “was having a cultural shift. It’s what I would call winning spirit. I’m a huge believer that you have to have that fighting spirit, that winning spirit, that desire to keep going. That will to push limits is a huge thing. It requires to come from management, from training, from everything.”
The move came less than 2 months after the American group had no podium surfaces in 2 major regattas at the place for the 2020 Games.
Page was worked with in November 2016 to attempt to turn around the United States’ sagging Olympic fortunes after 2 straight embarrassing performances. The United States won simply one medal, a bronze by San Diego’s Caleb Paine in the Finn class, at the Rio de Janeiro Games. It stopped working to medal in London in 2012, the first time that happened given that 1936.
Page beat out American candidates for the task because he brought “a template” of the success the Australians had in reconstructing their Olympic program, then-US Sailing president Bruce Burton stated when Page was employed. The Australians employed top coaches, put together a strategic strategy and found the cash to compete at a high level.
Page became part of that restore, winning gold medals in the 470 class at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. That’s another medal than the United States won combined in the 2012 and 2016 games.
Page will stay in a transition function through October. Due to his visa status, he and his household will need to go back to Australia. They have been living in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2018.
Page’s departure came 3 days after Greg Fisher resigned as U.S. Cruising’s COO of Olympic sailing.
Paine said he hadn’t found out about Page’s ouster prior to being gotten in touch with by the AP for comment.
” I thought he was doing a fantastic task and was doing everything possible to make the modification,” Paine stated from Newport, Rhode Island, where he’s training with American Magic, the New York Luxury yacht Club’s America’s Cup group. “I’ll need to look more into this and get my head around this.”
Paine completed 11 th in the Hempel World Cup Series Enoshima in late August.
The United States has actually won the most Olympic sailing medals in history, 60, but the well-funded British team has actually rapidly pulled within one. Plus, the British lead the Americans in gold medals, 28 to 19.
The United States dominated Olympic cruising in the 1980 s and early 1990 s before Britain, Australia and New Zealand began overtaking it.
Among America’s Olympic gold medalists are the late Lowell North, who founded North Sails; Buddy Melges, who co-skippered the winning sloop in the 1992 America’s Cup; and Mark Reynolds, a San Diego sailmaker and four-time Olympian who won 2 golds and a silver in the age-old Star class. Another four-time Olympian and three-time medalist, Paul Foerster, capped his Olympic profession with a gold in 2004.
Mr. America’s Cup himself, Dennis Conner, won a bronze medal in 1976.
The last American to win a sailing gold medal was Anna Tobias, who passed Anna Tunnicliffe when she won it in the 2008 Beijing Games.