(Boston, MA)- Maureen McKinnon first began sailing on J/22's and J/24's in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
After an unfortunate accident that left her physically as a paraplegic,
she maintained her passion as a sailor and wished to get back out on
the water again. Not soon after, she discovered the Paralympic circuit and special boats she could sail. Ultimately, she teamed up with Nick Scandone to sail a SKUD 18 (a mini-sportboat type boat). After a lot of trials and tribulations, they not only won the US Paralympic Sailing Trials with straight bullets, but they won the Olympic Gold Medal in the 2008 Qingdao Olympics in China! Sadly, six months later, her teammate, Nick, passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Maureen is now on a new mission. Having overcome such difficult life experiences, she’s continued to sail a variety of boats. She’s even sailed on J/105s as the middle person/ pit in local Marblehead beer-can races. Perhaps some “J” sailors may wish to help her in her goal to again represent the USA for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
Maureen commented that, “I have continued to sail part-time on the Paralympic circuit over the past 6 years since our Gold medal win in China. In November 2014, I began practicing with a talented college sailor from San Diego, California and I am back in the SKUD18!
We have just returned from a World Cup event, our first racing together as a team. My new teammate, Ryan Porteous, and I secured the second place SKUD 18 spot on the Sperry Top Sider US Sailing Team, one year prior to the upcoming Paralympic team selection for Rio Games 2016. We are just two points behind the other US team.
The
US Paralympic Sailing Team has a long history of Paralympic medal
achievement in the 3 sailing disciplines. Since the sport's inception in
1996, the US has won 3 Bronze, 3 Silver and one Gold for our country.
We are very proud to make the US Sailing Team in this critical year,
just before the 2016 Rio Games in Brazil.It will take a lot of practice, training days, good regatta performances and public support over the next year to win the US Trials. The Marblehead community (especially the sailing community) really got behind us for my last bid in 2008. I hope to rally up the support we need to bring MORE gold back to our proud sailing community! The Olympic stipends provided to serious Rio campaigners falls well short of the fundraising needs of any team.
Our schedule will include two expensive overseas regattas and two boat charters for this year. We also have 4 local New England regattas (Newport & New York), and we are hoping to be granted a SKUD 18 start line for the 126th Marblehead Race Week this summer.” Here’s a biography/ backgrounder of Maureen on the US Sailing Team site. If you wish to help her efforts, please contact Maureen McKinnon’s email- mcktucker@gmail.com
|
