September 1, 2004
Gold Medallists Foerster/Burnham© Daniel Forster
Silver Medallists Lovell/Ogletree© Ben Radford/Getty Images
Meltemi Anyone?U.S. Sailors Take Home Two Medals
Meltemi or no Meltemi? That was the question asked each day before racing at the Agios Kosmas Sailing Center where the 2004 Olympic Regatta took place. What sounds like an exotic drink is the Greek word for local winds-sometimes raging-coming from a northeasterly direction. Its antithesis is the seabreeze, from the opposite direction, which is predictable and preferred, but for this event it did not come often enough. Instead, something of a hybrid breeze, shifty in a "random" way and sneaking in from the northwest, introduced itself. For the 18 members of the USA's Olympic Sailing Team sailing in nine different classes (11 divisions) of boats, outwitting the wind, not just harnessing it, was the key to medals, of which there were two in the end.
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posted by Breakwater 9/02/2004 01:33:00 PM