The Road to LA28 Just Got Real

This is what chasing the impossible looks like.

I know how far I have to go.
I’m going anyway.

The qualification process for the U.S. Olympic spot in the ILCA 6 was released this week. And suddenly, this thing I’ve been chasing has very specific dates, places and numbers attached to it.

There are two pathways to LA28:

• The first is brutally simple: finish on the podium at the LA28 Test Event in San Pedro next August, and you’re in.

• The second comes down to two regattas: the 2027 European Championships in Spain and the 2028 World Championships in New Zealand. Your finishing places are added together, and the sailor with the lowest combined score earns the spot.

That’s it. Three regattas. Two pathways. One Olympic berth. And the first qualification event is eight months away.

Seeing it on paper

I’m not going to pretend that reading the qualification system didn’t hit me hard. Because I know who I’m racing against. A few weeks ago, I was on the starting line at the ILCA 6 Women’s World Championship in Ireland with some of the best sailors in the world. I got to see, very clearly, where I am right now and where I need to be.

The gap is real. Eight months suddenly feels very, very short. There was a moment after reading the qualification rules when all of the questions I’ve managed to keep at arm’s length came rushing in.

• Can I actually close that gap?

• How much better can I get in eight months? Eleven months? Seventeen?

• How much more can I ask of my body, my family, my finances and the people who have supported this completely unreasonable dream?

And maybe the hardest one:

• What happens if I do all of this and I don’t make the Olympic team?

I don’t know how this story ends

I think there’s a temptation when you tell people you’re chasing a huge goal to project absolute confidence. Believe hard enough. Work hard enough. Never doubt yourself. But that's not really how this works.

I can believe in myself and still understand the math.
I can be incredibly proud of how far I’ve come and still recognize how far I have to go.
I can want this desperately and know there are no guarantees.
In fact, there never were.

When I got back into an ILCA two years ago, I didn’t know this would happen. I didn’t know I would lose 94 pounds. I didn’t know I would start racing internationally again. I didn’t know I would earn an invitation to the Women’s World Championship. I certainly didn’t know thousands of people would start following along, or that women I’d never met would write to tell me that watching this journey made them sign up for a regatta, return to a sport, or start thinking about the thing they had quietly stopped allowing themselves to want.

I just said yes to one regatta. And then I kept saying yes.

Maybe that has always been the point

LA28 is still the goal. I want to be very clear about that. I’m not changing the destination because the road suddenly looks harder.

But seeing the qualification process in black and white has forced me to think about why I’m doing this in the first place. Yes, I want to become an Olympian. But somewhere along the way, Second Wind became about something bigger than whether my name ultimately appears next to USA in Los Angeles. It became about ambition after motherhood. About returning to something you loved before life got complicated. About being willing to be a beginner again, or to be bad at something for a while, or to stand on a starting line next to people half your age who are much, much better than you. About letting your kids watch you want something.

And maybe most importantly, about refusing to believe there is an age when we're supposed to stop asking ourselves:

What am I capable of now?

So, now we know the assignment

Eight months until the European Championships. Eleven months until the LA28 Test Event. Seventeen months until the 2028 World Championship in New Zealand. There is an enormous amount of work between here and there.

There will be fewer races simply for the sake of racing and a lot more focus on the things that actually make me faster. Training. Coaching. Strength. Technique. Time in the boat. Racing against the people I ultimately need to race against.

This next phase has to be intentional. And yes, I'm scared. Because now I know exactly how hard this is going to be.

But I’ve never needed this story to have a guaranteed ending. I needed a goal big enough to make me find out what I’m capable of.

Now we know the assignment. Eight months. Time to get to work.

Want to be part of the next eight months?

Chasing this dream takes more than determination. It takes coaching, training, equipment, travel and the opportunity to get on starting lines with the women I need to learn to race against.

I can't do that part alone.

If you've been following Second Wind, if this completely unreasonable dream has made you think about one of your own, or if you simply want to see how far we can take this, I'd be incredibly grateful to have you in my corner.

Help me get to the starting line.

Every contribution helps fund the training and competition it will take to give this my best shot. And every person who joins this journey reminds me that Second Wind has become about something much bigger than one starting line.