But the sailors will tell you that it is Rio’s wild and unpredictable winds and currents that will present the greater challenge. Canada’s sailors will enter this regatta absent a clear medal favourite, but the conditions on the water could easily level the field. There have been stories about floating trash and unsafe bacteria levels for as long as Rio was contemplated as an Olympic site. “I think the Rio venue is so variable that any of the top 10 boats basically can medal and we are one of those boats,” Grinke says. Boyd, her 26-year-old partner from Kingston in the 49er FX class, says: “We came here three weeks ago, and in those three weeks, the amount of garbage that’s in the water has decreased almost 90 per cent.

Source: National Post August 07, 2016 19:41 UTC