Sailors Monique de Vries and Nia Jerwood to continue proud WA history in 470 class at Olympic Games

Published On: 31 March 2021

WAIS sailors Monique de Vries and Nia Jerwood have been selected to the Australian Olympic Team for the Tokyo 2020 Games as the women’s 470 sailors.

Their selection continues a proud history for Western Australian sailors in the 470, with WA having representatives in the class at every Olympic Games since 2000. This history include WAIS Sailing Head Coach Belinda Stowell, who claimed gold in 2000 in Sydney, with Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi replicating the feat eight years later in Beijing. Stowell in addition to her Sydney gold also represented Australia at the Athens and London Games.

De Vries and Jerwood join Matt Wearn who was selected in the Laser class as Western Australian’s on the Australian Olympic Team, with 2021 the first time WAIS has contributed three sailors to the team.

“We’ve been working towards this for a really long time, so it is just so special to have all of our hard work pay off in being selected,” said de Vries.

“It’s really special to now be part of Australia’s Olympic heritage in sailing. Nia and I have had so many great influences from the team over the years, it’s just an honour to now join that.

“We consider ourselves the luckiest 470 team in the world – our coach in Perth Belinda Stowell is an Olympic gold medallist, we’ve had exposure to 2008 Women’s 470 gold medal winning team Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson and when in Sydney we train under Victor Kovalenko alongside [Olympic medallists and World Champions] Mat Belcher and Will Ryan.

Jerwood was quick to echo the sentiments. “It’s so exciting, we are so proud to be joining the team, and of the work that we put in to earn our spot. We are also really thankful to the people who helped us get there.

“We knew we were a chance of selection after our performance at the World Cup event in 2019, so with everything that has happened since that time we went through a rollercoaster of emotion to now arrive here. We were really excited when we achieved those performances back in 2019, but today we stand here with a mix of relief and jubilation.

“But we’ve also used the last year as preparation, working on our weaknesses to become more well-rounded athletes. We know we’ve gotten faster, our technique and speed have improved and we’re ready to put in our best performance in Tokyo.”