Courtesy of Maggie Shea
For the second straight Olympic Games, the Connecticut College Camels’ Sailing program will be represented on the world’s biggest stage by Maggie Shea ‘11, after her and her skipper Stephanie Roble’s (who sailed at Old Dominion University) recent qualification for Paris 2024. The duo will be representing the United States in the 49erFX class – which is a double-handled high performance skiff – in sailing. All of the Olympic sailing events this summer will be held in Marseille, on the French Mediterranean coast. The College Voice recently had the opportunity to speak with Shea about her sailing career for the US National Team, as well as her reflections upon her time sailing on the Thames River here in New London, CT.
When asked about what stood out to her most about her time on the Sailing Team here at Conn, Shea repeatedly emphasized the importance and strength of the community amongst the sailing team. “The community that the team creates is just incredible,” says Shea. “You learn that sailing as a sport is really tough in terms of time commitment, logistics, boatwork, fundraising, traveling, sacrifices, social life, sleep, and so on. It’s a really demanding sport in every sense of the word.”
Shea made sure to highlight how all of the challenges of sailing, and of college sailing in particular, breed (and require) a special type of bond between teammates. “From the beginning I was like ‘you can’t do this without friends and teammates,’ and the Conn team was so tight, so rallied so hard around each other. [Head Sailing Coach] Jeff [Bresnahan] was an unwavering pillar of support for athletes, and had a belief in the team that at times felt delusional, but he had this belief in us and made us all feel really good about ourselves.”
On the role Bresnahan played for her as a coach, Shea emphasized his openness, honesty, willingness to accommodate and encourage her Olympic aspirations, and advocacy for female sailors as standout memories of her time at Conn. “Jeff always kept the big picture in mind. I talked to Jeff on a recruiting trip about wanting to sail the Olympic Trials in 2008 and 2012. He encouraged this and helped me train in a laser all fall. He let me take time off in the fall for trials, working with my coaches and teammates about it. I wanted to have a divided focus [between sailing for Conn and sailing the Olympic Trials] and he said ‘OK, let’s figure out how to make this work best for you.”
Shea emphasized the knowledge of past Olympic sailors to come through the Conn sailing program as something that she valued when deciding to come to New London. “There were a ton of Olympians that sailed in the Conn program before me, such as Amanda Clark [‘05], and that was really encouraging to know that Jeff was so supportive of aspiring Olympic sailors before me.”
She also made sure to mention her appreciation of Bresnahan’s advocacy for and belief in the Women’s Sailing Team within the broader Sailing Team. “[Jeff] had this belief in everyone on the team, especially on our women’s team. Being a female sailor is tough, you’re usually in the minority… Jeff is such a feminist in so many ways, and that was very encouraging. He would say ‘stick it to the guys, stand up to them’ and backed us in a way that was so supportive and empowering.”
Bresnahan’s honest coaching was also something that Shea highlighted as important for her as a sailor and a teammate. She highlighted his emphasis on placing team goals over individual goals as greatly impactful, especially in a sport such as sailing where – other than college sailing – it is generally a very individualistic sport. Shea states that “there were times when Jeff would put something in a blunt but effective way and I would say ‘when you put it that way and put it bluntly that makes sense,’ and I was really glad that he would put things bluntly. Knowing that at times we would need to pick and choose what you do and prioritize, and Jeff would always focus on prioritizing the common good of the team over any individual accolades, or anything like that.”
On the impact of Conn in a broader sense than Sailing, Shea shared that “one thing about Conn is that you develop such a great relationship with your professors, and they have this cool belief in you. That’s special. I’ve talked to friends [who went to other colleges] about relationships with their professors and nobody else knew their professors as well as we did. I took professors to Sailapalooza and capsized boats with them. You graduate and you feel like you can do whatever you want. Conn has some special sauce there. They make you believe you can accomplish anything. The student body gets behind you and they hold each other up. Conn is so cool.”
Shea fondly and powerfully summed up her memories of attending Conn and sailing at Conn by stating “I was and am really proud to be a Camel Sailor, because of everyone who was on the team. It was just a bunch of great people that enjoyed practicing and working hard together… being together on and off the water, laughing at Jeff, walking up the hill together, and taking endless van rides together.”
On her ongoing Olympic journey, Shea emphasized the impact of the disappointment of her and Stephanie Roble’s 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, in which they finished 11th out of 21 teams in their 49erFX division. On their performance in Tokyo, and the highs and lows of the years since then, Shea stated that “the time right after Tokyo was the hardest. We underperformed in Tokyo. We didn’t sail how we wanted to, it felt like things finished out of our control. We both had to take some time and decide if we wanted to do another campaign. It’s just exhausting, everything that you put into it. We both had this hunger, but we had to decide if this hunger was sustainable.”
The qualification cycle for Paris 2024 was a much shorter turnaround than a normal Olympic qualifying cycle, due to Tokyo 2020 being pushed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. In this short time frame, Shea and Roble had to devise a new training plan, and Shea had to spend two months recovering from abdominal surgery before getting back on the water. “After the devastating result in Tokyo and surgery, I had to do a lot of rebuilding in terms of confidence as an athlete, and a sailor, and to find that belief in myself again,” said Shea. She adds that “We had three more years to do it again how we wanted. We had to change some things and do it differently from how we did it the first time… It’s been really rewarding wrestling with new topics and things that I’d never thought I’d wrap my head around, and figure them out. It’s a huge gift in life to get a second crack at something. Now I have a chance to do that and send it.”
On her and Roble’s goals for Paris 2024, Shea stated that they “want to end it proud of how we sailed. We want to stick to our processes, enjoy some moments, and give it our best. Performing at our best means focusing on the tiny moments that go into the processes that lead to success…we’ve trained 150 to 200 days a year for eight years for this.”
Shea both acknowledged the incredible mental challenge of sailing at such a high level as the Olympics while also expressing great confidence in her and Roble’s ability to meet the moment. She states that “the funny thing about Olympic sailing is that on a normal day you can tack, gybe, and start no problem, and then you add the pressure of the Olympics and the normal stuff can be hard. We say ‘just be normal’ sometimes, because our normal is really good.”
As Shea gets ready to go represent America at another Olympic Games, she looks back at her time on the team, stating that “Sailing at Conn was a really special time, and I look back on it and think ‘oh my gosh.’ We knew how good we had it… it’s a pretty insanely cool opportunity, and I acknowledge and recognize how special and cool it was and is.”
