If you thought you saw a familiar Choate face walking with the U.S. Olympic team in the opening ceremonies of this summer’s Beijing Olympics, you were right. It was Dean Brenner, husband of history teacher Emily Brenner. Mr. Brenner, chairman of U.S. Sailing’s Olympic Committee, served in Beijing as the team leader for the U.S. Sailing team. The decisions he and the other committee members made helped create what Mr. Brenner considered a successful regatta, in which two first-time Olympians, Anna Tunnicliffe and Zach Railey, won medals: Tunnicliffe a gold medal in the Laser Radial class and Railey a silver medal in the Finn class.
Chairman of U.S. Sailing’s Olympic Committee and team leader are two very tough jobs. Mr. Brenner initially got involved with U.S. Olympic sailing as an athlete training for the 2000 Olympics. He finished second at the U.S. trials in the Soling class. This led to an invitation by then Chairman Bob Hobbs to sit on the committee and “help the next committee organize for the 2004 games,” which in turn led to his becoming chairman for the 2008 Olympics. On top of those responsibilities, Mr. Brenner added that of team leader. According to Mr. Brenner, being team leader “basically means that I’m in charge of organizing the whole team, and making sure everyone has what they need, being the primary liaison with USOC and the Beijing Olympic committee.” This job also included trying to “eliminate distractions” and “barriers to success” for the athletes.
Olympic sailing is a sport in which experience counts; there are also many variables. Mr. Brenner noted that “you could be the favorite going in and have a bad week and finish toward the back.” This year’s Olympic team was very different from previous years. Mr. Brenner explained that, “We had a really young team: fourteen out of eighteen Olympians were first timers, and our average age was 26. This is the youngest team we’ve had represent the U.S. in about 30 years.” Even with a relatively young and inexperienced team, Mr. Brenner was happy with the team’s performance.
Mr. Brenner said he was not surprised about Tunnicliffe’s and Railey’s winning medals. He said, “We knew Anna was going to compete for a medal, but you can never expect a gold… We are really proud of Anna—she sailed an unbelievably consistent regatta. She never made any big mistakes the whole time; she let everybody else make mistakes around her.”
Regarding Railey, Mr. Brenner said, “We knew he could compete for a medal, but he wasn’t as much as a certainty based on the track record, but knew he absolutely had it within his capability to do it, and he was a classic example of a guy who starts off a regatta really strong, and all of a sudden you wake up and the regatta is almost over, and he is still there, in the front, and he never really made a mistake.”
Though the other athletes did not fare as well as Railey and Tunnicliffe, Mr. Brenner thought they were well prepared for the light and shifty winds of Qingdao, the sailing venue. Going into the games, the U.S. team was competitive for a medal in three of eleven events, in which only one produced a medal. Mr. Brenner said that, “I even think all the sailors would agree with me when I said, ‘We’re excited about how we did, but we could have done better.’”
As for the next Olympics, in which the sailing will be held in the waters off the shores of England, Mr. Brenner thinks we will see another campaign from Railey, Tunnicliffe, and other young Olympians who competed in Qingdao. Mr. Brenner said that the focus would not necessarily be only on the Finn and Radial, but also on some events like the Laser and 49er where the U.S. team’s performances can improve for the next Olympics. Having been re-elected chairman of the U.S. Sailing Olympic Committee for the 2012 games, Mr. Brenner will probably be present in the opening ceremonies in England in 2012, and we may see his hard work pay off with even more success than in the 2008 Olympic Games.
Brenner celebrates an American Gold Medal. Contributed Photo
