Minium: Former ODU Sailor Stephanie Roble Closes Out Her Stellar Career Dreaming of Olympic Gold in Paris
By Harry Minium
Stephanie Roble began sailing when she was five years old on Lake Beulah in rural Wisconsin about a half hour southwest of Milwaukee. Her father was a sailing aficionado, and his daughter enthusiastically followed in his footsteps.
Curiously, the day after she was born, her father and brother sailed around the lake with a sign that read, “It’s A Girl.”
Clearly, she was destined to become a great sailor.
She watched the summer Olympics for the first time on TV in 1996, where sailing competition for the Atlanta games was held in Savannah, Georgia.
It’s been her goal ever since to stand on the podium, have a medal placed around her neck and then listen while the Star-Spangled Banner is played.
“Ever since I found out that sailing was an Olympic sport, I’ve had my eye on the Olympics,” she said.
Her chance at Olympic glory began this past weejend, and not only will it be her final Olympics, it will be her final event as a professional sailor.
Roble, who is 35, began her career at the Lake Beulah Yacht Club and then was a three-time All-American at Old Dominion University, where she was part of a team that finished sixth in the nation.
She won bronze medals at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships and was the 2014 champion of the Women’s Match Racing International Series.
Also, in 2014, she picked up the Heisman Trophy of women’s sailing when she was awarded the U.S. Rolex Yachtswoman Sailor of the Year.
In 2019, she and her teammate Maggie Shea won the silver medal in the 49er FX class in the Pan American Games. A year later, she and Shea won a bronze medal in the World Games and then participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which because of the pandemic, were held in 2021.
She and Shea, who met while competing against each other as kids, have been teammates for almost a decade now and both will retire after the Olympics. They both have been sailing almost full-time for nearly three decades.
“We’ve been pursuing this for eight years together,” Roble said. “We are looking forward to discovering life outside of sport.
“With these two Olympic campaigns, we have experienced so much together. We’ve had some really amazing moments and some really tough moments.
“But ultimately, everything has brought us closer together and we look forward to building our friendship more outside of the intensity of performance.”
ODU Head Sailing Coach Mitch Brindley said he's not surprised that Roble is retiring.
"It is so hard to do what Stephanie has done over the years," he said. "Especially in the U.S. you have to be to be dedicated full time" to make the Olympics.
"We don't have the same infrastructure for the sport, the funding that we need. You not only have to work hard sailing, but you have so much work to do with sponsors and donors.
"There is a great deal of support from U.S. Sailing. But it's still very hard on you."
Roble said she treasures her Olympic experience in Tokyo, even though in some ways it was traumatic.
She had always dreamed of participating in the opening ceremonies. “And I loved it,” she said, even though because of the pandemic, no fans were in the stadium in Tokyo.
She experienced a much different opening ceremony late Friday night in Paris, where teams didn’t walk into a stadium; they instead floated down the Seine River past the Eiffel Tower, and took in a glitzy celebration replete with strobe lights, fireworks and characters in all sorts of attire.
On Saturday, she took a train 700 miles to Marseille, France, on the Mediterranean Sea, where the sailing competition began early Monday morning.
She and Shea are very familiar with the course, as they have spent much of the last two years training there.
“It’s a very dynamic place, and our takeaway is that we need to expect anything,” she said. “And we’re ready for that.”
They weren’t quite ready for a curious set of fouls called on them at the Tokyo Olympics, including a Rule 42 violation, the only time they’ve been flagged for the penalty in their long careers. Basically, they were accused of using their bodies to help propel the boat, something Roble said they would never do.
Later, they received a yellow flag, which meant they should have retired from the race, but did not see the flag. They were within reach of a medal before the penalties but finished 11th.
She said that neither she nor Shea blame officials for the penalties and said they emerged from their first Olympic experience much wiser.
“It’s hard to put into words how much the Olympic experience can help you,” she said. “There are so many little things that are different and add up over the course of time at the Olympic Games.
“Having that experience under our belts as a team is a huge positive. Especially, since many other teams we are competing against haven’t been in the Olympics before.
“One major takeaway is understanding what is and what isn’t in your control. Once you know that, it’s important to roll with the things that you can’t control and attack the things that are.”
She says she has dedicated herself to make her family, (parents Dale and Nancy and brother Bradley), friends and supporters proud, including the many who have donated to help bankroll the Roble-Shea Racing Team.
She also will be representing ODU and realizes that a medal is not only a win for her, but for the Monarch sailing program.
She was recruited by Brindley, who enters his 30th season coaching the Monarchs this fall.
“When I was a freshman at ODU, Mitch was coaching Anne Tunnicliffe, who ultimately won a Gold Medal at Beijing in 2008,” she said. “Mitch and I run into each other randomly in the sailing world and it’s always great to see him.
“It was inspiring to work with him and to watch how he worked with Anne.”
Unlike the Tokyo Olympics, when her family could not attend because of the pandemic, they are all in Marseille.
And there will be hundreds of people back in America, from East Troy to Norfolk, rooting for both her and Maggie.
"Even if she doesn't medal, her success, her representation on the Olympic level is a great tribute to Stephanie and her work ethic and also to the success of our program," Brindley said.
"She was such a good sailor when she came to ODU but left a better sailor. We're very proud of her."
She says she has yet to decide what comes after sailing, but knows she will miss the rush that comes from competing on the water.
“Being on the water is such an amazing feeling to me,” she said. “I’m so present in what I’m doing. It’s such a dynamic sport. Every day you hit the water, there’s always something to learn.
“I love the challenge.”
And would love to bring home the gold in the final competition of her illustrious career.
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram