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Interview with 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist Zach Railey Zach, thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to sit down and talk with us. Congratulations on your silver medal!
DW: The first question we have for you is, how did you get into sailing and how long have you been doing it?
ZR: I always grew up near the water and loved to do things involving the water. One day when I was 8 years old at our family dentist, he mentioned a 2 week sailing course at the local yacht club. My parents checked into it, enrolled me in the program and I fell in love with it on the first day. It has been a crazy journey that has led to the rest of my life.
DW: That's an interesting way to get into sailing. Don’t think I've ever heard of anybody getting into sailing that way. Zach, was it a goal of yours to make it to the Olympics or did your skill take you there?
ZR: The first time I thought about competing in the Olympics was during the '96 Olympic Games in Atlanta. I watched Michael Johnson beat the world and Olympic records with the gold shoes. To watch him do this at that level, I thought to myself, I want to be able to do the same at the Olympics only do it in my sport. That year is when I found out that sailing was in the Olympics. Ironically, after sailing was completed in this Olympics. I went to the arena and watched Usain Bolt beat all of Michael Johnson’s records. Right then, it all seemed surreal.
DW: Do you sail other types of boats?
ZR: I started sailing in the opti and then graduated to the laser and then laser full rig. I would like to do some Melges 24 sailing and more large boat, team based sailing.
DW: Do you plan on competing in another Olympics?
ZR: Yes. I plan on doing another campaign for the 2012 games in London. I’m currently looking for sponsors.
DW: How bad was the pollution and algae during the games?
ZR: Outside of the algae, pollution was just hype. The Chinese should be hugely credited because of how clean the city was. They cleaned the city so much that pollution or algae wasn’t a factor at all. An algae bloom had happened about a month before the games when we were over there too practice. That is when the algae was its worst. The Chinese built a floating barricade around the racing area and went around it and picked up all the algae around it and the algae that had gotten through it. Local fisherman, citizens and even Chinese military were out cleaning it up every morning. I never once had to complain about algae during racing. It just wasn't a factor. The Chinese did a great job with the facilities, the manpower and the infrastructure was phenomenal. I wouldn’t want to be the host of the next Olympics because China did a great job.
DW: Where do you think this take your sailing career? (Farr 40 racing, Americas cup racing).
ZR:I would like to get my feet wet but my main goal for the next 4 years to qualify again and represent the USA at the next Olympics and stand one spot higher on the podium.
DW: Zack, what would you say to kids who have goals and aspirations just like yours?
ZR: Push yourself to be better all the time. Set an ultimate goal but never about the end goal. Make smaller goals in between. Start with a goal of making the opti national team and then making the Opti world team. Once you've made the Opti world’s team set a goal of doing well at the worlds. Be realistic about your goals. Take home your disappointment from not achieving a goal and say why didn’t I achieve the goal. Use it as motivation to do better next time.
DW: One last thing, describe the experience of competing in Olympic games.
ZR: Euphoric! Gary Jobson asked me what is like competing in the games and that’s all I could say. Past Olympians told me to take in the experience and enjoy it. I enjoyed it all and realized how lucky I was to be there because people try so hard there whole lives to get to the games and never get too. The silver medal was the icing on the cake.
DW: Zach, thanks again for taking the time out of your schedule to talk with us. Congratulations on your silver medal and good luck on qualifying for the next games. Make sure you check out Sailmonster.com and sign up!
ZR:Thanks! Actually I was surfing the web while I was in Qingdao and came upon Sailmonster.com and thought it was cool and I would go back and check it out. With all the hype I just forgot to go back and check it out. I will do it though.
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