Rio 2016 Paralympic Games just weeks away

As the sun sets over the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, we can reflect on what was a thrilling Olympic Sailing Competition which was action packed quite literally until the last.

The final gold was won by just two seconds, and quite fittingly by a Brazilian crew, 49erFX sailors Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze.
 
But as one regatta ends in Guanabara Bay another waits in the wings to begin. The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

 
The Olympic Sailing Competition thrust sailing in to the eyes of the world with its stunning backdrops of Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain, and the Paralympic Games will do the same.
 
Australian SKUD18 sailor, Liesl Tesch, is excited at the prospect of sailing among the iconic world sights, “It’s in the spectacular city of Rio de Janeiro. Heading in to the Paralympic Games to sail under that Jesus out there on the water in front of the Sugarloaf Mountain is a fantastic honour.”
 
France’s Damien Seguin has ambitions of one day sailing the Vendee Globe, but he knows that the Paralympic Games is a high point in a sailor’s career, “It’s a dream come true. We are on the final steps to the Paralympics. I want to be in Rio tomorrow.”
 
He may not be in Rio tomorrow, but it is getting close. As the Paralympic Games draws nearer, there is also the need to focus around all the excitement as Germany’s Jens Kroker knows all too well, “It’s going to be really really intense. We will prepare from a strategic and technical side. We will study the weather data we have gathered. We will do a bit more practice in Rio.” But he did also add, “It will be a magic moment.”
 
Great Britain’s Helena Lucas wraps the Paralympic Games in one simple sentence, “This is the key time. This is the time to put the icing on the cake.”
 
The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will take place between 7-18 September in Rio de Janeiro and the sailing is scheduled to be raced between 12-17 September in Guanabara Bay.