Zoom lens on Tokyo

With the Olympics postponed, 49erFX helm Charlotte Dobson tells Rob Peake how she and the British Sailing Team are coping with isolation

- Rob Peake

While most people using Zoom have been enjoying neighbourhood drinks parties, business meetings and daily chats with isolated relatives, the reality for the British Sailing Team is somewhat different.

“We have a Zoom turbo sessions, Tuesdays and Thursdays,” says 49erFX helm Charlotte Dobson with a laugh. “Somehow seeing the screen filled with the faces of your gurning teammates makes it easier.”

Dobson and the other sailors selected for the Tokyo Olympics next year may be in lockdown like the rest of us, but they have a packed week. “We have Workout Wednesday as well as yoga and pilates every day, core sessions and some weights and specific conditioning sessions. They’re keeping us busy, but suffering in a group is somehow easier.”

Meeting Dobson back in March at the RYA Dinghy Show, it was five months to go until the Olympics and she and crew Saskia Tidey appeared calmly confident. Their results over the previous three years had put them on or near the podium and they arrived at the show fresh from a silver medal at the 49erFX worlds, only losing gold after a dramatic capsize in the medal race.

Then the world changed and amid the Covid-19 pandemic Tokyo 2020 was put back a year to the summer of 2021.

Dobson admits the decision threw her: “You get so used to thinking, this is a performance you need to deliver on this day at this venue. For that to move, to be candid, we were gutted.

“It is all put into context with the horrible situation that we all find ourselves in. We fully back the decision to postpone the Games. But within our little Olympic bubble, and personally for me since I feel I am moving towards the end of my career, it was hard to refocus and think about living at this level of intensity for another 15 months.