By Harry Minium
Stephanie Roble began watching the Olympics as a little girl from her home in East Troy, Wisconsin, and especially loved watching athletes from the United States march into the opening ceremonies.
So, even a surprising disqualification from her competition could not ruin her memories of July 23, when she and more than 600 American teammates walked into the opening ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics chanting "USA!"
"It was a magical experience," said Roble, a sailing All-American at Old Dominion. "It's always been my favorite part of the Olympics. It was really a uniting moment. Even though the stadium was empty (because of COVID restrictions), it was something I will never forget. To compete for our country was such an honor."
Roble and teammate Maggie Shea trained and competed together for five years and have never been assessed a Rule 42 penalty, which is using your body or sails to help propel your boat through the water.
Rule 42 penalties are rarely called in the 49erFX class, yet the team received one late in the Olympics. The following race, they received another penalty after Roble accidently ran the boat into the turn mark.
They did a 360-degree turn, as the rules call for, to exonerate the penalty. But after the race, they learned they had received a yellow flag, which meant they should have retired from the race.
That wasn't communicated to them until it was too late. Judges told them they were disqualified. These penalties had a huge impact on their overall results, moving them from within reach of the podium to 11th overall.
And if you're thinking the umpires missed badly, you are correct. Other sailors in their fleet reached out to them, expressing surprise and outrage over the Rule 42 penalty.
"We didn't take proper action after receiving the second penalty, which in hindsight was to retire from the race," Roble said. "However, at the time it wasn't on our radar because the situation had never happened to us before and we didn't feel that any of our technique was out of line.
"We sailed in very similar conditions the day before and didn't have any different techniques than we did the following day or the previous five years sailing in similar conditions. So, it was confusing to receive this penalty on the final day of the Olympic qualifying racing. We aren't blaming the umpires for our result. We are just confused on why we received the call."
Roble is among the elite in international sailing, respected not only for her skill and work ethic, but also for her humbleness and calm demeanor. And it took every bit of self-restraint she and Shea could muster following their disqualification.
"Over the last few years we have trained so hard mentally to move on quickly and reset from mistakes or things that are out of our control. In the heat of the moment when we received the second penalty, we just did our penalty turn and worked hard to move on from the situation as we have trained," Roble said.
"What did we do wrong? We were a little confused about that. We tried to talk to the umpires after the race, but never got a good answer.
"We sailed in this boat for five years and never got this penalty. We never thought we were doing anything wrong. To receive the penalty, that was really hard."
And disheartening.
"Part of the sport is out of your control," Roble said. "And we accept that.
"We were happy with how we were racing, and how we were scoring and our speed and tactics. It shows all the work we put into the last five years was worth it. We're still really proud of what we did in the water."
They should be proud. And their disqualification from the Olympics should not define their careers.
They medaled in so many events the last five years, including a bronze medal in the 49er and 49erFX World Championships in Australia in 2020, earning the right to represent their country in the Olympics.
Roble, 32, who will be inducted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame in October, is young enough to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she and Shea are taking some down time before deciding on their future.
"That's the million-dollar question in our lives right now," Roble said. "Given how much time we spent away over the last few years, we're enjoying being non-athletes for a bit."
She and Shea returned to America on Aug. 3. They flew together to Chicago, where dozens of family members and supporters cheered while holding welcome-home signs and waving American flags.
"That was just so awesome," Roble said. "It's just been really nice to be back in this community again, to be with the people who supported us from afar."
If they decide to retire, she and Shea will get help from the U.S. Olympic Committee, which has a program to help athletes transition to the work world.
"I trust, in the end, that we will make the right decision," she said.
And she should do so with no regrets.
Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU's Stephanie Roble Says Sailing in the Olympics Was The Experience of a Lifetime
