March 13, 2012
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. – Junior skipper Dillon Paiva of the Old Dominion University Sailing team has been named to the 2012 US Sailing Development Team (USSDT).
The USSDT was created in 2007 to help young athletes, who have been identified as future Olympic prospects, acquire the skills necessary to launch successful campaigns and compete at the Olympic level. Supported by the US Sailing’s Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC), 52 talented sailors from across the country were named to this year’s team.
Paiva (Raleigh, N.C.) has been tabbed to the 470 Men group (two-person dinghy) along with Connor Brady, Ian Robinson and Alex Hume.
“We are starting to see pay off from our increased emphasis on youth development in the Olympic classes,” said Dean Brenner, Chairman of the OSC. “In the past few years the level of talent has noticeably increased in all classes targeted for the 2016 Games. With the new structure in place and increased resources, we plan to see our performance improve in all areas as we work toward future Olympic medals.”
“The US Sailing Development Team has had two very successful years of results. In 2010, we won three bronze medals at the ISAF Youth Worlds, our best performance in 18 years,” said Kenneth Andreasen, the US Sailing’s High Performance Director/Head Coach. “In 2011, we improved on that performance with three silver medals.”
For 2012, the USSDT will reflect the advancement of Olympic class sailing in the U.S. as it is now divided into two groups: the Olympic Development Team (ODT), focused on performance in Olympic Class equipment, and the Youth Development Team (YDT), focused on performance in the equipment used in the ISAF Youth World Championship.
The full article on this year’s USSDT release can be found here.