I have a blog now!
For those just meeting me via this website, I'm Christina Sakellaris, and I'm pursuing an Olympic gold medal in the Women's Singlehanded Sailing class (ILCA 6/laser radial) at Paris 2024. This journey has been a long time coming for me, and I'm incredibly excited to finally share my full-time campaign on this blog and website
Since graduating from Stanford in June 2021, I've been putting a lot of time on the water and in the gym all around the world. 2021 ended with a slightly disappointing result of 43rd at the Women's World Championships in Al-Musannah, Oman, but after some time at home to rest, I was thrilled to bounce back with a very strong winter season in Florida. I finished 2nd and 1st at the US Open West Coast Sailing Series Lauderdale and Clearwater, respectively. We had a really strong training block with our domestic squad and Canadian friends/training partners, and it was fun to fight it out with everyone on the final day in Clearwater! See the roomie squad below:
February involved a two week trip to Vilamoura, Portugal with coach Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias. We logged 12 days on the water during the 14 day trip, and finished the two weeks with racing the Vilamoura Grand Prix event. I was happy to put a lot of starting line lessons from Oman to good use, and finish 20th.
Since then...
I spent 8 weeks in Europe this spring! The USA Radial squad was able to train together in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, competing in a training event, and logging plenty of breezy hours on the water. Despite spending three weeks in Palma before the main event, the Princesa Sofia Trophy, started, we didn't see the sun...at all. It was a rainy and windy three weeks, and I'm incredibly grateful to the laundromat down the street from our Airbnb for making dry clothing possible.
The Princesa Sofia Trophy itself was one of the most physically taxing events I have ever sailed; we spent a lot of hours on the water in chilly temperatures and difficult conditions. After a rough start to the event with a capsize in race 1, I was happy to come back to finish 26th. While it's tough to underperform overall, I'm happy to have had one of the best days of racing of my career on the first day of gold fleet racing with two top ten finishes.
Two weeks after Palma, I competed at SOF Olympic Week in Hyeres, France. Difficult building see breeze conditions, and a brutal light air day hurt my scores at this event, but I worked hard to maintain a positive attitude and take some lessons from it. Highlight of the week was either an epic downwind on day 1, or go-karting on our day off!
Up next...
After spending some time at home in Boston, I'll be heading to Almere, Netherlands to race in the Allianz Regatta, and then to Kiel, Germany to race in the Kiel Week regatta. Let's go.
Lastly, an eight-week European tour isn't possible without lots of support. As always, thank you to the US Sailing Team/ODP, to coach Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias, and lastly to my partner Colie Sails for the equipment!
- Christina ⚡️
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