SLGGS Student is One Step Closer to her Olympic Sailing Dream

Alicia is the only girl in a team of six, aged between 15 and 17, to be selected for the Spitfire section of the squad.

 

“I’m really happy, it means a lot,” said Alicia who gets up at 5am for two weekends every month to travel four-and-a-half-hours to train in Weymouth. “It’s quite hard work but I love sailing, it’s still a lot of fun.”

 

Alicia first experienced sailing at the age of two when she was taken out on boats with her family. Alicia’s mum, Anne, dad, Paul, brothers Alastair (22) and Anthony (28) and sister Louisa (25) are all experienced sailors.

 

At the age of 11, Alicia began racing with the South East Zone Squad all over the south-east in a 2-man mirror dinghy. When she was 13, she paired up with close friend and fellow SLGGS student, Siobhan Lamb to sail in their Hobie Dragoon, a 2-man catamaran. The girls went on to sail a Spitfire together but recently Alicia teamed up with Sir Roger Manwood School student, Harry Willett to compete for a place in the National Youth Squad.

 

When she’s not in Weymouth, Alicia trains at Whitstable, Datchet Water or Brightling Sea and goes to the gym every night in the week to work on her core fitness. Incredibly, Alicia also manages to successfully juggle the demands of four AS Levels and is hoping to become a doctor. With 6 As and 5 A*s at GCSE and with predicted grades of 4 A* at A2 Level, Alicia is sure to be a strong contender for Medical School when she applies next September.

 

Alicia trains in all weathers – only a force 6 wind will stop her from sailing at weekends – and is used to adverse conditions: “Capsizing happens all the time – it’s quite a normal thing. I get wet a lot!” However there’s also the occasional bonus of seeing seals off the coast of Sheppey. “Hopefully I’d like to be selected for the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship in Ireland next summer – only one Spitfire team will be chosen to represent the country and I’ll be taking part in selection events in the spring” said Alicia.

 

The next big step in her Olympic goal would be selection for the Olympic Development Squad at the end of next summer, Alicia would be very happy to hear from any local companies interested in sponsoring her boat to help meet the costs incurred through regular training, travelling and boat repairs as she works towards this goal. Alicia plans to keep sailing even when she’s at university: “It’s different to life at school and everything else – it just makes sense and I really enjoy it.”
 

(Alicia and Harry are pictured sailing their Spitfire above)