Every four years, in a different part of the world, a proud host city builds what becomes a temporary Olympic Village.
But the real Olympic Village may reside on the Peninsula.
Point Loma will send four sailors to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in August. Most of them have spent their youth circling through the waters off La Playa. They will follow a trail of gold, silver and bronze laid down by family and friends for three generations
In fact, it is said that in terms of medal count ” at least ten ” the San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) alone could qualify as a small country in the Olympics.
“I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like,” said 21-year-old Graham Biehl, who will race in the 470 class with crew Stu McNay of Boston.
Biel and McNay will compete in their 470 class opening round on Aug. 11, with medal races slated to take place Aug. 18.
“Euphoric” is the word sailor Andrew Campbell uses. Campbell, 24, will race singlehanded in his Laser beginning Aug. 12. The medal race for the Laser class takes place Aug. 19.
Campbell and Biehl grew up in the junior programs at the Mission Bay and San Diego yacht clubs.
Biehl, 21, is a college student who has taken the head junior coaching job at SDYC. Campbell, the pride of Bishop’s School and Georgetown University, is a Pan-American Gold Medalist, 2006 Collegiate Sailor of the Year and three-time collegiate singlehanded champion.
But right next door, the crowd at Southwestern Yacht Club (SWYC) will be cheering on Tim Wadlow as he heads for his second Olympics appearance with crew Chris Rast in the 49er class.
The 49er class will open Olympic competition on Aug. 10, with medal races set for Aug. 17.
Wadlow placed fifth in the 2004 Games, and if he comes back with a medal it will be a first for Southwestern. He, too, sailed the waters off La Playa since the age of 10.
“I wouldn’t be doing another run at the Olympics without the support of my wife, who is a great sailor herself,” said Wadlow, 34.
He sails with wife, Ery, in team racing.
“I started to get interested in the Olympics as I got to know San Diego Olympians like JJ Isler and Mark Reynolds,” Tim said.
Reynolds happens to be Biehl’s uncle. For Biehl, the hope for Olympic Gold is all in the family.
“When I was 8 years old I would ask my uncle, ‘Could I see your medal?’ And he would go upstairs and drag it down,” Biehl said.
Other sailors echo the sentiment of family motivation.
“Just to know those things are possible makes a huge impact on a child,” said Campbell, whose father, Bill, sailed in three America’s Cups and was four-time All-American sailor.
It will be the fourth time around as a coach or as a racer for Rast, 36, who was born in America but who was raised in Switzerland and last sailed for the Swiss Olympic team.
“It’s a hard thing. You keep working on your sportsmanship and on your personal qualities, the boat handling and the speed issues,” said Rast. “I see it as a great opportunity to keep working on yourself as a person.”
That is something all of these local Olympians have done, crisscrossing the world ” Venice, Poland, Holland, the Dominican Republic ” even since winning their various Olympic trials in October.
Moving their boats around the world is an Olympic trial in itself. Biehl and McNay had trouble driving a boat from Poland to Berlin.
Campbell was truly going to have a slow boat to China after his Laser was stalled on the docks during a walkout by French dockworkers. They will be battle-tested by land and by sea before they ever get to the starting line in Beijing in August.
“It’s constantly a logistics struggle and constantly a fundraising struggle,” said Biehl.
The four sailors from Point Loma spent a week training together in France this spring, sharing strategy, bonding and cheering each other on ” a small Olympic team of their own.
“We definitely have team spirit. We have grown to know each other very well and to feed off each other’s energy and promote each other,” said Campbell, who looks forward to the opening ceremonies in China.
The same will be true for a whole community at the end of this Peninsula, watching to see if sailors from Point Loma once again bring home the gold.