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Updated: October 1, 2009, 4:58 pm	Share    Print    Email

Skipper Amanda Clark-Nissen and crew Sarah Mergenthaler will train in Shelter Island this fall to begin preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Racing photos courtesy of Associated Press

Shelter Island - Beijing is in Amanda Clark-Nissen's rear-view. The spectacular Opening Ceremonies, the fanfare, the week's worth of racing at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center - she still marvels at it all. Last summer, Clark-Nissen paired up with Sarah Chin (nee Mergenthaler) to finish 12th out of 19 boats in the Women's International 470 series at the Summer Olympic Games.

Recently, the Team GO SAIL - their moniker - has committed to campaigning for the 2012 Games in London, setting up two week-long training camps in September and October before they plan to move to Miami for the winter months.

Clark began racing Optimists - or single-handed sailing dinghies - upon joining Shelter Island Yacht Club's junior sailing program when she was seven years old.

Amanda Clark and Team GO SAIL finished 12th out of 19 boats in the Women's International 470 series at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

She began to compete internationally and at age 14 won a silver medal at the Optimist European Championships and was the top female competitor in both the North and South American Championships at age 14. She had graduated from the Optimist class to the Europe class - an increase of about three feet in dinghy size - and became the youngest female ever to be named to the U.S. Sailing Team at that level.

It was just a year ago last month that the team powered through their final training camp in China in preparation for the regatta for which they'd trained practically their whole lives. "Beijing was something else," the Shelter Island native said. "Sometimes it still does not feel real - I walked in the Opening Ceremonies. To think back at what I was doing at this time last year to get ready for the Games, I am blown away by all aspects of it."

This will be Clark-Nissen's fourth push toward representing the United States, and with each try the results have grown progressively better. In 2000 at age 18, she finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the single-handed Europe Dinghy class. Clark-Nissen and Chin joined forces in 2002 and were alternates for the 2004 Games in Athens after taking second at the Trials. Then came Beijing, a realization of their dreams.

There is one more step though, one Team GO SAIL believes it can and will take - bring home a medal. The last U.S. women's 470 team to medal at the Olympics was Jennifer Isler and Sarah Glaser, who took silver at the 2000 Games.

Amanda Clark coached two different U.S. travel teams in the Optimist Class, first in Holland and then Slovenia (above).

"We are certain we have what it takes to win a medal in 2012," Clark-Nissen said. "We will also have our coach (Ian Warren) from the last campaign and [have competed at the Games before] so that is a strong factor."

In considering the London Games, the duo checked with their spouses and received the OK - after all, they'll be training year-round, with qualifying events both stateside and overseas in 2011 and 2012. They've both gone through the levels upon levels of qualifying races, the travel - Clark-Nissen has sailed in 39 countries - the innumerable hours on the water, the Olympic Village experience, and the build-up to the fortnight of wall-to-wall athletics from the swimming pool to the track to the ocean. What Team GO SAIL discovered in Beijing, though, is that once they were on the water, the surroundings weren't unlike the waters they'd trained and raced on leading up to the Olympics.

"It is no different than any other sailboat race," Clark-Nissen said. "In fact, I think that there are less people and fanfare once we are actually racing, which is strange. Now that we have the experience in the class, I think we can focus on winning regattas, not just practicing tactics and race strategy."

For the time being, Clark-Nissen and husband Greg, who is the director at Quinipet Camp and Retreat Center, will call Shelter Island home. Training for London will begin soon enough.

"We're taking time to step back and enjoy sailing on a less formal level," Clark-Nissen said. "Sometimes things can get overcomplicated. We can plan on maximizing time at home with short but focused training camps, hopefully giving us the best of both worlds."

In the time since leaving Beijing, Amanda Clark has worked at Wood Boatworks in Greenport.