DHis time is ripe-at least for Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel. A few weeks before Enoshima Bay’s debut, the two sailors sat almost impatiently on the terrace of the North German Sailing Club on the Alster River outside Hamburg, talking about their big goal: winning a gold medal. Olympic Games In Tokyo. As Plößel said, they believe that the postponement of the competition to 2021 is “more like a year of winning, because we qualified last year and therefore are not in the air like many other athletes”. “But now we can finally start.”
For 20 years, Heil and Plößel have been in the same boat. When they were teenagers, they won the second place directly in the first sailing regatta for Tegeler Segel-Club in 2001. They are still a team and have been one of the best captains in the world in the 49er class for many years- Now that they are closer to each other than ever before, they can realize their sports dreams. “Anything can happen. But we are closer than two or three years ago. If the materials are valid, we are likely to win the gold medal,” Heil said.
A bit like before Heligoland
Five years ago, two Berliners won the bronze medal, which is also the only “precious metal” for German Olympic sailors. This time too, in addition to the 49er duo from the top ten German sailing team, Philip Bull also has a great chance to win a laser medal. In Rio, Heil, 31, and Plößel, a year and a half older, missed a higher step on the podium just because of a poor start in the previous game. After Heil contracted a serious bacterial infection during training, the water quality of the Brazilian coast has caused great excitement, and the bay is obviously polluted by sewage.
In the Japanese game, Heil and Plößel are expected to be completely different from the game held in Rio de Janeiro five years ago-not only because the water is cleaner. “Rio is completely distorted. There are often crazy currents and it feels like sailing in a maze,” Plößel said. In Japan, on the other hand, high winds and high waves make ships difficult to maneuver and increase the risk of capsizing. “We assume it feels a bit like sailing from Helgoland-it’s just getting hotter,” Haier said. He and his teammates are still puzzled because of the very high humidity and 28 degrees Celsius of the sea they can get between matches. And calm down during the game.
So far, they have only learned about Japan’s territory through simulations and stories. In order to be able to train under conditions similar to Enoshima, the two Berliners traveled to Portugal, Lanzarote, and most recently to Santander, Spain in the spring—sometimes with special permits during the peak of the pandemic. To this end, Heil and Plößel have worked with a meteorologist and a nutritionist for some time, and have established a partnership with the 49er duo from Spain, who are also in Tokyo and are the best team in the world one.
As Heil said, the two Olympians described their boats as “bigger surfboards, and the mast likes to roll and is not suitable for waves at all.” “There are no 1,000 different setting options” and the design is relatively simple, which is attractive and exciting. “This is a boat you can never fully control. It is more like a touring car than a Formula One car,” Plößel said. Each square centimeter and related tasks are assigned to one of the two. There are also hundreds of code words that call each other over and over and are associated with specific actions and calculated risks. “The important thing is to save language, energy and finally time. When the wave comes, we cannot have long discussions,” said Plößel, who said of himself, “sometimes it may be more weird to us” and” sometimes not. Don’t shout my anger out loud”. But in the end 49er is a “very cool class”-the two best sailors in the world must be defeated in the process of winning the gold medal.
“Pete is a very tired man”
Because along with New Zealanders Peter Berlin and Blair Tucker, the two Germans competed with the 2016 Olympic champion, two America’s Cup champions and a world voyager during the Volvo Ocean Race. “Peter and Blair often sail in their own league. Especially Pete is a very tired person,” Plößel said, adding in the spring when referring to their participation in the America’s Cup. “But they have also dealt with a lot in recent years. Other things may not be 100% ready. This gives us a real chance at 49er.”
The two have no plans for the time after the game. From another attempt at the 2024 Paris Olympics, to the new goals of other sailing competitions, such as the high-tech form of “Sail GP”, to completing degrees in mechanical engineering (Plößel) and medicine (Heil), everything is possible, but no Specific content ideas. “In the final analysis, the Olympics is an important mental game,” Plessell said. Regardless of the choice of materials, routines or tactics: you must have absolute certainty of everything you do, and you must concentrate on it, otherwise you may forget the medals. Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel will not waste an idea, it will become like this.
