Connecticut College Graduate Amanda Clark Advances To Olympic Medal Race

A 2005 graduate of has advanced to the medal race in a sailing event at the 2012 Olympics.

Amanda Clark, 30, of Shelter Island, N.Y. qualified for the race today. Clark is competing in the women's 470 with teammate 23-year-old Sarah Lihan, a 2010 Yale University graduate and resident of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The final two races of the 10 preliminary competitions took place today in London. Clark and Lihan, representing the United States, finished 17th and ninth in these races. After the completion of the preliminary round, Clark and Lihan are ranked ninth out of 20 teams. The top 10 teams advance to a medal competition on Friday.

The competition format awards points based on the athletes' finishes, with first place getting one point, second place getting two points, and so on. The best and worst scores are discarded at the end of the preliminary round, and point totals from the medal race results are doubled. The three teams with the lowest scores after the medal round will receive medals.

Clark and Lihan's had seven places in the top 10 spots during the preliminary races, including third place finishes in the second and seventh races. Their point total at the end of the preliminary races was 98, down to a net total of 78. Australia and England are tied in the top spot with 33 net points.

According to NBC's Olympic profiles, Clark attempted to make the Olympic sailing team in 2000 and 2004 before making the team in 2008 and finishing 12th in the 470 with teammate Sarah Mergenthaler. She graduated from Connecticut College in 2005 with a degree in studio art and lives on Shelter Island with her husband, Greg Nissen.

Lihan tried to make the Olympic team in 2004 and 2008 before joining it this year. Clark convinced her to switch from the single person laser radial to the two-person 470, and they won the spot on the team at the 2012 Olympic Trials in a tiebreaker with Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar.

Another Connecticut College graduate, , finished 22nd in the Olympic windsailing competition.

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