{"id":405531,"date":"2026-07-20T18:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405531\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:35:10","slug":"olympic-hopefuls-get-their-long-beach-recon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405531\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Hopefuls Get their Long Beach Recon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ILCA-6-ESP-44-Hernandez-and-Alcantara-scaled.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"\"  \/>                <\/p>\n<p>                Jordi Xammar Hern\u00e1ndez and Marta Cardona Alc\u00e1ntara, the Spanish mixed 470 team, on the first day of racing off San Pedro.<br \/>\n                Lexi Pline<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SAN PEDRO, CA \u2013 On Sunday, nearly 200 Olympians and Olympic hopefuls from 34 countries took to the water at San Pedro OCR for six days of sailing in the L.A. Harbor.\u00a0 Among the contenders are 35 Olympians, including sic winners of a collective eight Olympic medals -tw gold, two silver, and four bronze \u2013 and for many it is their first chance to sail at the host venue for the LA 2028 Games.\u00a0 Sailors in all 3 fleets will compete in 2 to 3 races per day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The race is the first Olympic Class regatta to take place at the Port of Los Angeles in the history of Olympic sailing, including the 1984 Games held to the east of this new site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s huge to be able to have an event on the Olympic waters,\u201d says Bermuda\u2019s Adriana Penruddocke in the ILCA 6 fleet. \u201cJust to be able to get here and experience the venue is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPlus, it\u2019s always nice to have a chance to compare yourself with the folks at the top and see how you measure up,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Top 3 sailors in the ILCA 6 world rankings Charlotte Rose, Maxime Jonker, and Eve McMahon will started alongside her on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ILCA 7 fleet, which features one of the deepest fields in the regatta, includes two-time Olympic gold medalist Matt Wearn, of Australia, and a collection of world championship contenders eager to test themselves on the future Olympic racecourse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In preparation to meet these top competitors on the start line, British sailor Finley Dickinson says he\u2019s been focusing on fitness and endurance, taking advantage of L.A.\u2019s extensive bikeways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve been cycling up to the aqueducts,\u201d Dickinson said of his route along the L.A. River bike path. \u201cI\u2019ve also been biking north up toward the mountains and south toward Huntington.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fellow Brit and ILCA 6 sailor Hannah Snellgrove was diligently studying San Pedro\u2019s unique wind patterns in advance of the six-day racing event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDownwind, the technique here is very venue-specific, so I\u2019m working on trying to get that right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For these sailors, the race is a valuable opportunity to soak up decisive local knowledge at the L.A. 2028 Olympic venue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s my hope that these athletes walk away with a sense of how they\u2019ll need to train over the next two years of their campaigns,\u201d says World Sailing Chairman Fred Hagedorn.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ILCA-6-GUA-182111-Castellanos-scaled.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image\" alt=\"\"  \/>                <\/p>\n<p>                Cristina Castellanos, of Guatemala, racing in the ILCA 6.<br \/>\n                Lexi Pline\/US Sailing<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gathering intel will define the success of the week \u2013 how and when the breeze builds, what influence wave swell from the Pacific has on boathandling, and how the racecourses inside and outside the L.A. Harbor break water reward different sailing styles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt can be really tricky here, especially outside the break water,\u201d says American 470 skipper Micky Munns. \u201cWhen the waves rebound off the sea wall, it creates a really confused sea state that\u2019s challenging in light and in windy conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Munns adds that both times he\u2019s sailed here previously he was treated to strong wind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Italy\u2019s Dimitri Peroni is making his first visit to the United States this week, but says he\u2019s already heard plenty about the famous afternoon sea breeze.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m hoping for the classic breeze that this region is known for,\u201d Peroni smiled. \u201cAnd a good result to go along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Racing in the ILCA 6, ILCA 7, and 470 classes continues through Friday, July 24. Event details, entry lists, results, and schedules can be found at<a href=\"http:\/\/register.sanpedroocr.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/register.sanpedroocr.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">register.sanpedroocr.org<\/a> and you can follow the regatta on Instagram at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sanpedroocr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">@SanPedroOCR<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordi Xammar Hern\u00e1ndez and Marta Cardona Alc\u00e1ntara, the Spanish mixed 470 team, on the first day of racing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,88674,162590,1439],"class_list":["post-405531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-olympic","tag-olympic-sailing","tag-san-pedro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}