Sailed past the podium | August 7, 2024
The goal was a medal, but in the end she finished fourth. In the final medal race of the ILCA 6, Maud Jayet was unable to catch the Norwegian Line Flem Höst, who was ahead of her.
Maud Jayet gave it her all, but in the end it was just not enough for an Olympic medal.Photos: Keystone
At her Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, not everything went as planned. After a mediocre start, she got into a negative spiral and was unable to reach her potential. Three years of hard and focused work have paid off. In Marseille, Maud Jayet also started the competition in 16th place, which was anything but ideal. But unlike in Japan, she did not let her head hang and looked forward.
“The conditions were extremely challenging the whole time and I knew that the main thing would be not to make too many mistakes,” the 28-year-old said, analyzing the course of the race. Even a 13th and 17th place on the third day and a 22nd (discarded) on the fifth day did not throw her off course. However, she was five points behind the bronze medal before the medal race – a burden that ultimately proved to be too great.
“I wanted to go to the right side of the track and got off to a good start. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t turn to the right as I had hoped and I had no chance to attack again in the short run,” said Jayet in tears after the medal race. “At the end of the day, only a medal counts at the Games, and unfortunately I missed that. I gave it my all – it’s difficult to stay positive at the moment.”
Remarkable development
Despite missing out on a medal, the 28-year-old from Vaud’s performance is remarkable – and it is by no means surprising. After the last summer games, she turned a lot of things upside down and looked for new solutions in both the physical and mental areas. She spent countless hours in the weight room at the University of Lausanne, and for the mental work she found a suitable trainer in Maayke van der Pluijm.
Jayet’s performance is nevertheless remarkable.
The Dutch woman, who lives in Lausanne, works for the entire Swiss Sailing Team, was also there in Marseille and helped Jayet to block out as much background noise as possible. Finally, the collaboration with coach Mikael Lundh, which began at the end of 2021, also paid off. The Swede used to be a professional sailor himself and is considered an extremely demanding coach who only has his athlete’s success in mind.
“Maud’s development is truly remarkable,” says Christian Scherrer, head of the Swiss Sailing Team. “With her two World Championship silver medals (2022 and 2023 – editor’s note), she has shown that she is among the world’s best. She put herself under enormous pressure in the run-up to the Olympic Games – which makes us all the more pleased about this success. Of course, a medal would have been even nicer, but fourth place in the ILCA 6 is an excellent result.”
Big competition
The result is all the more impressive as the ILCA class is one of the strongest in Olympic sailing. The single-handed dinghy known as the Laser was designed by Canadian Bruce Kirby in 1970. Thanks to its easy handling and its initially relatively low price, the Laser quickly spread around the world.
Today, it is estimated that over 200,000 boats are sailing in over 140 countries. And the Laser fleet is traditionally the largest at the Olympic Games: in Marseille, for example, no fewer than 43 boats were at the start of the ILCA, while not even half of that number was allowed in the other boat classes. This difference also says a lot about the importance of the ILCA class.
