Shoreview native sets sail in bid for 2024 Summer Olympics

INTERVIEWER: For our listeners who might not be familiar with this Olympic sport, I think most people have know what sailing is, but I don't know if they know about how it works during the Olympics and what kind of sailing you're doing. So why don't you explain that to us? What kind of team are you on?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Sure. So there are 10 different types of sailboat in the Olympics. I race one called the mixed dinghy. So it's mixed gender, one male, one female. And this is actually the first time my type of boat has been mixed gender. So I'm racing with a teammate who has sailed in four Olympics before, but it's our first time sailing together. Two-person boat, it has three sails, and my teammate sits on the side of the boat, and I am on a trapeze, so I hang off the side of the boat.

INTERVIEWER: Wow, that sounds like fun.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: It is so fun, and it's extremely physical. And it's basically like you're working to your highest heart rate most of the 45-minute race. And you're also reading the wind, making decisions, based off of the weather and your competition. So you're pretty much doing math problems while you're at your highest heart rate for 45 minutes, twice a day.

INTERVIEWER: That sounds like a lot of work. Now you used the word "trapeze." Describe what that looks like for us.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: So I have this harness that I wear, and it has a hook around my pelvis section. And something on the side of the boat, I grab and I hook on to that, so my feet are actually on the side of the boat. And then there is a wire or a rope-- you can use either-- that goes up to the side of the mast. And yeah, it's worth a Google search.

[CHUCKLING]

It's harder than I imagine to describe.

INTERVIEWER: So when people who aren't sailors see videos of people doing this, are they like, oh, my God?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Yes, absolutely. And I think that's actually the last year, I've really been making a push on my Instagram to put more videos out there. Sailing's usually pretty secretive, where people don't want to show their technique or what sails they're using. And it's pretty closed. But I've actually been pushing to show more. And I've been getting so much feedback. I had no idea this is what you've done. I've followed you for years. And I had no idea this is what it's like.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, so like sailors don't want to give away what they might consider to be their secrets on their technique.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Totally. Totally. How they shape their sails and what kind of equipment they use, how much bend does the mast have. There's just so much that goes into it.

INTERVIEWER: So why aren't you afraid of that? Why aren't you afraid of that?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Well, my theory is more, we would never take our tuning guide and show the world, but I think each sailor and each team has such a different style, different body shapes, different techniques, that how I set my boat up, I don't think someone else can jump into it and make it go the way that I can. So I'm more eager to show the sport and get that out there than I am worried about people seeing what equipment we use.

I just really want to show everyone what the sport is like. I think it's so amazing, and from so many different levels, too. I mean, there's disabled sailing, which is amazing. There's a lot of veterans that come back and get into the sport of sailing. They have blind sailing racing. It's just, you can take it in so many different avenues. There's boat deliveries around the world. And everyone that I've shown sailing for the first time and been with them for their first sail, they're just like, this sport is like something else. So, yeah, that really gets me excited to introduce people to the sport.

INTERVIEWER: So do you think sailing has a misperception about what kind of sport it is, as sort of an elitist, rich sport?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Absolutely, yeah. And that's certainly not my story. So--

INTERVIEWER: So what is your story? I mean, you're not elitist or rich?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: I am rich in experiences. I am certainly privileged in that I was able to grow up sailing, but by no means do my parents pay for my sailing or my Olympic sailing. I very much had to fundraise and work side jobs and do anything I can to make this work. But yeah, I grew up sailing on White Bear Lake, sailing in the summers.

And then lakes would freeze and I would play basketball, and I was in track and cross country and danceline. And so sailing was just such a fun thing for me to do in the summers with my friends and learn how to race, but that's not what it was about for me. And then I went off to college in Florida, and that's when I really took it to the next level. I started sailing on professional programs, where you get paid to race, and then got into the Olympic scene.

INTERVIEWER: That's terrific. Yeah, I bet going to college in Florida would make a big difference.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Totally, totally. I was actually committed to going to Eau Claire on a running scholarship and made a last minute switch to go to Eckerd College. And I just-- I think it was like a particularly cold week when I was a senior in high school. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to take the palm tree route.

INTERVIEWER: [LAUGHS] That's fantastic. And you competed in the last Olympics, right?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: I did, yes.

INTERVIEWER: And did you medal?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: I did not. Nope. We finished 12th. And that was actually-- so sailing is usually an older sport where-- I mean, I'm 34 right now. And it's not like that in a lot of Olympic sports. But many of the medalists are at least two-time Olympians. So it's such an experiential sport.

INTERVIEWER: Oh, that's fascinating. So in other words, age doesn't necessarily work against you. There'll be people in their 40s and 50s who win medals?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Yep, because it takes you so much to specialize or so long to specialize in the sport. And then just the experience of the games itself, we don't have a 12-second race on one day that we're doing. It's over the course of six days, or for these trials, over the course of eight days. So it's really a marathon. And so there's a lot to getting used to the pressure and just learning how to deal with all the rules in sailing and different situations. And yeah, it's a lot.

INTERVIEWER: And how many how many teams are competing in the trials? And how many will make the US Olympic team and go to Paris?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: In the mixed dinghy that I sail, there are nine teams, and one team goes.

INTERVIEWER: Wow.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Yes. So it's winner takes all.

INTERVIEWER: Are you nervous about that?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: I'm not. No. We have had so much preparation. And we've done everything we can in our control. So now it's enjoy and just take it one day at a time, one race at a time. And that's kind of my motto that always gets me through.

INTERVIEWER: If you do make it to Paris, where will you sail?

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: We will sail in Marseille, and that's the south of France. And we have spent a couple of years now sailing there, so we know the venue quite well. We know the waters and feel really good about that venue.

INTERVIEWER: All right, well, best of luck. And thank you so much for--

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Thank you.

INTERVIEWER: --taking the time. Yeah, now I'm interested in sailing. I wasn't before, but now here we go.

LARA DALLMAN-WEISS: Yay.

INTERVIEWER: Let's watch some sailing.