Team Saunders

07/08/2018

Dear Team Saunders Supporters,

This past Saturday marked two years since the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics in Rio; an enormously important date in our lives. We are deeply grateful for your contributions of guidance, resources and encouragement throughout the six years of that campaign.

After a lot of careful thought and consideration, we have both decided to step away from Olympic sailing. One of your recommendations to us was that we continue to progress in our education during the campaign period. As a result, we are well positioned to pursue careers in Engineering and Finance. We both feel that our love for sailing has not diminished at all, and we are certain we will stay involved in the sport through club racing, cruising and dinghy racing. Here is a snapshot of what we have been doing since Rio.

Jacob had a very quick turnaround between returning home after the closing ceremonies in Rio and starting classes in pursuit of his Bachelor of Engineering; within two weeks he went from the waters of Guanabara Bay to a classroom in Halifax. His program involves academic terms alternating with co-op work terms. Since returning to school, Jacob has achieved a 4.0 GPA (on a 4.3 scale) and has been awarded three scholarships. Jacob is wrapping up his third work term with Mosher Engineering in Halifax. He will be returning to Dal for his last year of classes in September and is on track to graduate in May of 2019.

Graeme graduated in 2014, and so was able to spend some of the fall of 2016 in Chester to decompress after the Olympic experience. In early October, he bought a one-way ticket to Toronto in pursuit of his first job in Finance. Graeme accepted a Commercial Banking position with RBC in January 2017 and has adjusted well to the Toronto lifestyle. He continues to be involved in the sailing community and enjoying cruising and racing on Lake Ontario.

We aspire to emulate all of you by giving back to our community to the best of our ability throughout our lives. The excitement of Olympic sailing lives on in several talented local teams and we are proud to join you in supporting these excellent candidates, including Georgia & Antonia Lewin-LaFrance, Max Flinn & Allie Surrette, and Luke Ruitenberg.

Photo credit Sailing Energy

12/02/2017

Check out the interview we did with CoveFM at 11 this morning! Hope to see everyone at C*C today at 2pm.

Tomorrow morning at 11 am Bob Ouellette will be interviewing Team Saunders. Jacob and Graeme Saunders are Rio 2016 Olympic Athletes and Canadian Sailing Team members from Chester, Nova Scotia. They are looking forward to Tokyo 2020 as well. Listen in at covefm.com or 88.7 FM

08/02/2017

We'll be giving a talk about our Olympic experience at the Chester Yacht Club this Sunday at 2pm - all are welcome!

21/10/2016

Sad to say goodbye to an old friend today, we've had some good times and some long drives in this truck!

Thanks for the ride Colonial Honda!

22/08/2016

All in all a pretty amazing experience! We sailed better and better every day and are happy with our performance. We're proud of what we've accomplished and so grateful for the opportunity to represent our country here at Rio 2016.

It's hard to believe that our first Olympic Games are over already but we're excited for what comes next! Massive thanks to all our friends, family, and everyone who has supported us and helped us achieve what we have in the last five years. Thank you all for your support and messages, it means a lot!

We're flying home tonight and are looking forward to getting back to Nova Scotia for a short break before Jacob returns to Dalhousie to complete his engineering degree and Graeme starts his professional career.

We will also be working hard to put together plans and a structure for a successful Tokyo 2020 campaign, so stay tuned!

16/08/2016

Crazy day!

After a couple hours postponement ashore due to no wind we finally hit the water and were setting up to race in 8-10 knots when a front came in bringing 35-40... Never been on the trapeze with just the jib up before! We made it in safe and sound with no damage to our equipment.

3 races scheduled for tomorrow to wrap up fleet racing - we're looking forward to fighting hard to try to move up the standings!

Thanks to Ken Doole for the photo and support on water today.

15/08/2016

Another good day of racing yesterday! We were starting well, has good speed and spent lots of the day racing in the top ten. In the end we slipped a bit and finished 14, 17 in the two races of the day.

Still very happy with how we sailed and are continuing to learn and improve.

470 Race Day 4 at Rio 2016 Olympic Games © Matias Capizzano

13/08/2016

Great race yesterday. After waiting all afternoon for breeze we got one race in that finished as the sun was setting. We fought hard and moved up throughout the race to finish 12th, our best race yet this regatta! That's moved us up two spots to 22 overall. Rest day today then we have two more days of racing starting tomorrow.

Only halfway through this regatta and we're trending in the right direction!

12/08/2016

Pretty heavy duty day out there yesterday! Big 3-4m waves and 18-20 knots of breeze. Had some really good moments and battled hard but unfortunately a couple wipeouts in the second race kept us out of the top.

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement, we'll keep on fighting today!

Race Day 2 at Rio 2016 Olympic Games © Sailing Energy/World Sailing

09/08/2016

Follow all the action here in Rio! Check out Sail Canada's guide on following Team Canada below:

Follow Team Canada in Rio! Sunday, August 7, 2016 - Rio de JaneiroRacing kicks off Monday with the Canadian Laser and Radial fleets sailing on Day 1 of the Olympic sailing competition.Here are a few ways to follow our journey!Team Canada AppThe official app of the Canadian Olympic Team. Get in depth...

08/08/2016

Final day of training! All measured in and ready to go.