#FlyingArubies mentality driving them to Rio

Travelling around the world is all part and parcel for a sailor as they move around the globe from regatta to regatta, but for Nicole van der Velden that journey started before her sporting career ever did.

A bubbly and fun demeanor facing the media, the Aruban multihull sailor is at ease talking about her life, attending the Youth Olympic Games and being the first Aruban sailor to actually qualify outright for an Olympic Games.
 
“There have been Arubans at an Olympics but they have been through wildcard places, we were the first to actually qualify. Now we have six athletes going this time,” explains van der Velden.
 
One of those athletes, and the ‘we’ that van der Velden is talking about is her crew Thijs Visser. The pair met and teamed up in through luck rather than judgement. Visser’s helm was out with injury and van der Velden was asked to step in to fill in on a regatta, and the rest is history.
 
On the surface of it, van der Velden has moved around a bit, but with a wind postponement and an opportunity to sit down and talk with the 21-year-old you get to scratch beneath the surface to reveal a very thoughtful, deep thinking and respectful individual who has lived in some exotic places.
 
“Well I was born in Madrid,” began van der Velden. “I lived there for about half a year before we all moved to Suriname where I grew up for about six years. My dad then had a choice between bringing kids up in a big city or the jungle because he had two places where he could take his job, so he decided the jungle.”
 
“After his job was done there he wanted to go somewhere tropical so we moved to Isla de Margarita as my mum in from Venezuela. We stayed there for about two years but the situation in Venezuela wasn’t ideal especially for business so my dad started looking for something else.
 
“We were actually supposed to move to Holland. We had a house and a school set up and then last minute it was like ‘we are moving to Aruba’. And I have been there ever since.”
 
For someone who is thoughtful, has moved around and had a mixture of cultural influences it is no surprise that van der Velden tried a few sports and took her time to settle on sailing, “I did windsurfing to start as my dad took me on boats and I hated it. I just thought they were big and boring. I was also doing things like gymnastics and ballet and things like that on land, but when I did start windsurfing I was just hooked.
 
“Then as I got older I started sailing some more with my dad when there was enough wind for my surfing and it slowly changed my mind to think, ‘yeah, actually this is ok’, so I continued.”
 
Following van der Velden on social media you can see that she still has gymnastics in her life as she can often be seen in poses most can’t contort in to, but that also comes from her love of yoga. Laughing when asked about how her flexibility can help her sailing van der Velden says, “Like doing the splits when you fall down on a boat so you don’t tear all your ligaments…”
 
Only now noticing that van der Velden sits in a cross legged position with no problems she starts to relax and she delves deeper in to her sensitive side. Yoga is the trigger point, “I believe in the power of the mind and in yoga that is pretty big.”
 
A more relaxed van der Velden begins to open up and you start to feel privileged that she has reached a comfort level with you where she can talk about things personal to her, “My mum had Huntington’s Disease and other family members have had Alzheimer’s or Dementia and it just fascinates me and I did some research on how it all works in your brain. I really believe that you can control a lot of diseases in your mind. These days it’s all about how much pills you can take to fix something but I believe you can control some things with a positive mind.”
 
Spending so much time with her sailing partner Visser, van der Velden has begun to annoy him with all her research and philosophies on the power of the mind, “I think he goes crazy with my stories. I read books about these things and every morning I would go on for hours and hours about what I have learned. He has got a similar mentality but I tend to think of things a lot more than he does, probably because I had those personal experiences.”
 
Bringing talk back to sailing, experiences and the Olympic Games, van der Velden has had a taste of what could come at Rio 2016 this coming summer from her attendance at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games, “It was a pretty unique experience. Everyone is your age, really young but it really set a trend for me to try and go for the Rio Olympics. It was a good experience to have to know how an Olympics works.”
 
Van der Velden’s thinking and philosophy on the mental aspect of sport has tipped over in to her predictions for the upcoming Games and how the big prizes can be won, “Doing sport at a high level you really think about things a lot and I think you will see it during the Olympics. Of course sailing will get you in a good position but the ones with the strongest mind and mentality at that particular time will be the ones with the medals.”
 
That’s a prediction for Rio 2016 but talking about life after the Games, van der Velden isn’t so sure, “It’s quite scary thinking about it. You focus on a goal so far away. You have small goals along the way but you have this one massive goal at the end of it and it’s nearly here.
 
“Then you have to think about if you continue as a team? What’s happening in sailing in general? So I have no clue what I will do after, just surf for a few months I reckon, then after that no idea.”
 
Not completely telling the truth, van der Velden may not know what the immediate future may hold, but as a longer term approach the Aruban plans on taking her Yoga to the next level and taking some courses so she can teach others.
 
Her teaching will come eventually, for now though van der Velden has to use all her positive mental attitude and holistic approaches to represent her tiny island nation at the biggest show on earth, the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
 
No doubt, if her sailing can get her in a good position, her strong mentality will do the rest to get her and her partner Visser over the line.

By Richard Aspland – World Sailing

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