December 20, 2025
3 minutes reading time
David Coates: "I wanted to prove America has a place on the podium"
David Coates loves nothing more than being in control of his own destiny on the water and his grounded mindset has helped him become a Youth Sailing World Championship champion.
The American, who also goes by the nickname Mateo, won gold in the male ILCA 6 class in Vilamoura, adapting skilfully to the varied conditions across the week to finish 15 points clear at the summit.
It marks the best achievement of his fledgling career to date but the Miami native is unlikely to get too far ahead of himself.
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“I like to keep myself grounded,” he said. “I remember a coach who used to tell me that this pressure is not real pressure in life, there are people out there with way bigger problems who don’t have the same opportunities as me.
“The fact I have the opportunity to do what I love helps me bring myself back to a good mindset.
“From the beginning of last year, it has been my goal to be at this event and to win it feels amazing. I was sailing back in and I just started crying, I felt so emotional.
“I have practiced a lot how to control myself under pressure. This whole regatta, I never felt nervous, I felt pretty calm.
“I really wanted to prove America has a place on the podium, especially in ILCA 6. To show we have a place here is such a great feeling.”
Sailing was not Coates’ first sporting passion but it did not take long for the appeal of navigating the waves to hit.
“I used to play soccer, that was my first sport,” he said. “I lived on an island called Key Biscayne in Miami and my parents put me in summer camp, they always wanted me to get into sports and be active.
“I got into sailing and I was like ‘this is really cool’. There was a summer camp in the Opti and I loved that there was so much independence.
“As a little kid, you get to control your boat, I loved that feeling and throughout time, soccer turned into my second sport. In around 2018/19, I really fully devoted myself to sailing.
“It is a lot of power you have as a little kid to control what you can in the boat. It teaches you a lot for the future of your teenage years as once you gain independence as a teenager, you can get into bad habits.
“As a kid who experienced independence in a boat like that, where I’m alone and don’t have a team, it helped me stay grounded and prevent myself falling into other pathways I could have been led.”
Coates, whose mother is Argentinian, still follows soccer and supports Barcelona, in no small part down to the influence of Lionel Messi, which he joked has made life in Portugal tricky as he ‘keeps seeing (Cristiano) Ronaldo everywhere’.
The sports-mad youngster, who also follows the New England Patriots in the NFL and the Golden State Warriors in the NBA, credits coaches Arthur Blodgett, Simone Ricci, Andrew Lewis and Erik Bowers as key to developing both his sailing and his mindset, while a home Olympics in 2028 is acting as a huge incentive for Coates and his USA teammates.
“The Olympics coming to LA is so exciting and I have goals of trying to make it,” he said.
“It is such a huge motivation for all of us but especially the ILCA class as the USA has never won a medal in the ILCA 7 class.
“That’s no shade on anyone, all the athletes work super hard and I see how hard they work, but my goal is to put a medal for America at some point in the ILCA as it has never been done before. It is a great motivator.
“But let’s see how life goes, as anything can happen. I like having things in my control but in this sport, you can’t control everything, whether it’s current, wind or what the other boats are doing. There are a lot of variables.”