Keithopolous

Keith Burhans was a member of the 2000 Paralympic team. He sailed with skipper Paul Callhan. He in Athens as a Technical Adviser and Coach to the Greek Sonar team. Here is a report from him.

I am pleased to report that Team USA is looking strong going into the competition. In yesterday's practice race, they had good boat speed around the track and did well tactically with some light and fluky conditions.

The fleet was very compressed and the (my) Greek Team sailing the Sonar for the 5th time were pleased to be in the fray. They sailed the race in 5th - 6th place.

I am here because the Greeks as host country have an automatic bid in every event. They chartered a boat from England about 2 months ago. The skipper, Vassilis Christoforous is a C5-6 quadriplegic. He saw a picture of the "Gold Medal Chair" on the internet 2 years ago and saved it to his hard drive. He has been sailing a 2.4mR and working with Steve Alvey of Martin 16 fame. He asked Steve if he knew about the system and I was contacted about 5 weeks ago. I offered to loan them the system if they brought me to Greece and got me Greek Team credentials so that I would have access to the village and the venues. They managed to pull it together so here I am

"Keithopolous - the 3 Week Greek". My experience in the village has been very nice. The food is hit or miss but not as terrible as the Canadian's would have you believe. Keep your eyes on the USA, NED, GBR, CAN, GER and ISR as the medallist favorites. But don't rule out "Greek Tragedy" from having a few successful races - they are pretty good sailors that have listened and learned about boat setup and gear changing. I think they will surprise a few of the seasoned teams.

Keithopolous

18-Sep-2004