Bayport's Olympic Star Aims to Take Gold in London Games

This year’s Summer Olympics in London are being declared the “Year of the Woman,” for two big reasons: there are more female athletes participating than male counterparts and every country participating boasts at least one female competitor—even Afghanistan.

The third big reason, and most important for the Sayville-Bayport communities, is that the global competition includes one of its own: Debbie Capozzi, a Bayport native and resident, who learned to sail on the Great South Bay at the Sayville Yacht Club in Blue Point.

Capozzi, along with Anna Tunnicliffe and Molly Vandemoer, are Team Maclaren and competing in the U.S. Women’s Match Race, racing an Elliott 6m keelboat, that kicks off this Friday. The squad is all about working and succeeding as a team. In a video produced by NBC Capozzi is interviewed about her role and the team’s Olympic strategy.

“We’re always emphasizing we’re a team….our main goal is a gold medal at the Games,” she said.

According to a bio at the team’s website Capozzi is the recipient of  the US Sailing Sportsman’s Award and sailed for Old Dominion University where she earned a BA in Education and received All American honors in sailing.

While in college she was a member of the team which won the Intercollegiate Sailing Sailing Association National Championship, as well as being voted team captain for two years.

This week, at the age of 31, the Bayport resident is in her final stretch of training before competing in her second Olympic outing. Her first Olympic appearance was in the Beijing games four years ago.

The training is very cut and dry, according to the teammates, with gym time, a coach meeting, four hours of training, one hour of debriefing on the training, dinner and then bed.

Not only are the Games this time around in a different locale but the team’s competing in a different race format than Capozzi competed in four years ago.

This time it’s “Match,” compared to “Fleet” in Beijing. As her father Mike explains, it’s quite a bit different. Whereas fleet racing pits all sail boats against each other in one race, this Olympics’ Match category is a bit more intense, involved and takes much more time.

Twelve countries race against each other and the bottom four are then sent home. Then the eight teams go against each other in a round robin tournament elimination process and the field narrows to four teams. At that point the top achiever takes on the fourth place team, and second and third battle it out with three teams left standing for medal awards.

It’s a seven to eight day competition in all.

“It’s not like most of the Olympic events,” said Capozzi’s dad, whom Patch caught up with this week at Tina’s Ices, the frozen dessert mecca his Olympian daughter opened up three years ago on Montauk Highway, right on the border of Blue Point and Patchogue, just steps from West Lake.

“It’s a very intense and much more exciting to watch. It’s like the bracket competition in college basketball in that way,” he said.

The patriarch will be in London to watch his daughter come Friday, along with Capozzi’s mom, Kathy, all of Capozzi’s siblings (her older brother Michael, older sister Suzanne and younger sister Christine), her brother-in law Ben and her sister-in-in law Megan. All five Capozzi family grandkids are also heading to the Games come Friday.

Capozzi’s Dad is very confident his daughter and her team will do well.

“She’s been racing all over the world for the past four years, even in London. They’re the top U.S. sailing team,” he noted.

And, he added, his daughter has never lost her passion for the sport. It’s a passion that ignited early on.

“She was competing in a Sunfish World competition, she was very young, and it was very windy and she was competing against much older sailors. She was ahead and then she fell off the boat,” he recalled with a slight smile.

“She hung on and crossed that finish line first,” he added with a big grin.“That’s when I knew she had the heart of a tiger when it came to sailing. I knew right then she was something special.”

TO CHEER ON TEAM MACLAREN:

To keep up on Team Maclaren check out the team's blog here.

Like the team on Facebook: Here's yesterday's post: Great week of practice with Team Skudina (RUS) and Team Lehtinen (FIN). Sunny weather and light breeze. Can't wait for the official practice day!

Are you watching this year's Olympics? What's your favorite sport? Got a message for Capozzi and her teammates? Post it in the comments below.