Toronto's Sarah Douglas aims to sail into Canadian Olympic history
27-year-old wants to be first Canadian to win gold medal in her sport
If it wasn't for a single summer her brother spent at a recreational overnight camp, Sarah Douglas would likely never have discovered sailing, let alone be in contention to win a medal for Canada this summer in Tokyo.
Douglas was born in Canada and grew up in Barbados, but her family always had a Canadian connection. Her father had family in Montreal and both of her parents attended university here.
Those connections led her older brother to spend a single summer at Camp Tawingo near Huntsville, Ont., and marked the start of the Douglas family's deep love of sailing.
"My parents have no sailing background. They have no sports background. My brother went to a summer camp in Canada and they were on the lake and he was exposed to sailing and he was like, 'this is a cool sport,'" Douglas explains.
"I wanted to try it and then my whole family got into it. For me it went from a couple of camps over Easter or Christmas and our family buying a boat of our own to every family vacation revolving around sailing. Sailing just took over our lives."
Douglas begins her Olympics on Sunday when her Laser Radial competition begins with the first of 10 races, with points accummulated in each race determing medallists.
Douglas first got into sailboat at age 7 after growing up doing gymnastics and dabbling in other team sports. She quickly fell in love with the feeling of being alone in a boat, solely responsible for her own successes and failures.
"I'm the only person calling the shots. I'm doing all the decision making. If I make a mistake, it's me," she says.
Douglas excelled quickly. At age 10, she earned a spot on the Barbados team that competed in the U-15 world championships. She finished nearly last but came away from the experience knowing that she loved to compete.
"I was there and I was exposed. And from there I just saw the potential."
WATCH | Sarah Douglas not a stranger to perseverance:
In 2009, Douglas moved to Peterborough, Ontario to attend high school. It was around this time that she also began competing for Canada full time. She quickly emerged as one the country's best young sailors, winning a number of events and representing Canada at the inaugural youth Olympics in Singapore, finishing 10th.
After a long run of success, Douglas finished second at the 2010 Canadian championships, a result that sent her spiralling and for the first time in years had her asking how much she really wanted to keep sailing.
"That was heartbreaking for me. At that point I was winning a lot of things in Canada and so coming second and losing it on the last day was heartbreaking," Douglas recalls. "I was like, I'm done, I'm quitting."
Douglas did step away from competitive sailing, spending the summer coaching at a local Toronto yacht club. She did the same the following summer and at the same time started entering some small weekend competitions. At one of these events, she unexpectedly qualified to be an alternate on the Ontario team for that summer's Canada Games.
As part of Ontario's training camp, a group of Canadian Olympians visited. One of those athletes was gold medal trampolinist Rosie MacLennan, who shared stories about her recent triumph at the 2012 Olympics.
Douglas says it changed her life.
"She was talking about winning Olympic gold and what that meant and her journey and what it was like to stand on the podium," Douglas says. "And I was like what am I doing? I love sailing. I want to win an Olympic medal. I kind of had an epiphany and realized I've got to do something."
The provincial team was happy to have Douglas back, but her comeback was hardly smooth. Though she failed to qualify for the national team, the coaches saw her potential and she was allowed to train with the sailor who would represent Canada in her event at the 2015 Pan Am Games and 2016 Olympics.
Douglas eventually broke through by achieving a number of strong World Cup results and cemented herself as one of the best when she won the gold medal at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.
Canada has never won a gold medal in the sport of sailing and a woman has never won a medal at the Olympics in sailing. And I want to do both of those.- Sarah Douglas
She hopes that if she wins gold in Tokyo it will give some exposure to a "niche" sport that is rarely televised and can be hard to understand
"People don't even realize that sailing is an Olympic sport," she says. "So often I tell people I'm in sailing and they'll start doing the rowing motion. And I'm like no, not quite.
"I think a lot of people think it's easy, that you just sit out there and cruise, but it's actually very physically demanding and it's a lot of work."
WATCH | Sarah Douglas demonstrates training in a heat chamber:
She also hopes that Olympic success will give her a platform to show that people of colour can excel in a traditionally "white dominated" sport.
"When I walk into a club or in most international competitions, I am the only person of colour, but I don't ever really think about that," says Douglas, adding she has never had any issues and has always been embraced.
Douglas's event, the Laser Radial, is particularly grueling. Athletes don't use their own boats but are assigned one through a lottery.
"It's all about the sailor, which is what I love. It's only me in the boat so it's only me to blame."
In a span of a few days, sailors navigate the same course 10 times, with the top 10 racers advancing to the final.
After a long journey that began with her brother's chance trip to an Ontario summer camp nearly 20 years ago, the 27-year-old Douglas is heading to Tokyo on a mission, not shy about her aspirations.
"Canada has never won a gold medal in the sport of sailing and a woman has never won a medal at the Olympics in sailing. And I want to do both of those. Just get two birds with one stone," she says.
"I'm fine with the Olympic pressure. You're either an Olympian or a medallist at the end of the day. Unfortunately, in the past Canadian sailors have been happy to be there. But I want to perform. I want to win a medal."
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