Pam Healy won a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, in the 470 class racing with JJ Fetter. She learned to sail growing up in the Bay Area in her yellow El Toro, Woodstock, alongside the likes of sailing legend John Kostecki at the Richmond Yacht Club where she met her husband, Craig Healy. In 1983, she joined St. Francis Yacht Club as a Junior Member and she has been nominated for the role of Rear Commodore in 2025. Healy is on US Sailing’s Board of Directors and took on the role of Organizing Authority for the domestic Trials in Miami this past January and February. Her responsibility was to report to US Sailing and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee to ensure the Trial events were held to USOPC standards. She also organized the crucial 68 volunteers for the January Trials and 45 volunteers in February. With the Paris Olympics done and dusted, as well as the past few years of upheaval at US Sailing, Healy reflected on the recent Olympic quad with a view to LA2028.

“Working as the Organizing Authority for the domestic Trials was a two-and-a-half- year project and I didn’t realize how much work it was until it was over, I was so buried!” laughed Healy. “We brought in people from all over the country and involved as many women as we could. I was really proud of how many women we had on the water running races. It was great to learn who can really handle this kind of regatta pressure because we’ll be needing them for LA2028. We really have a talented group of people in this country who can do this work.”

Healy commented on the success of running domestic Trials for the first time in many years.
“There is an argument for domestic Trials and having everyone meet the pressure of just that one competition,” noted Healy. “I saw how high the pressure was—the fleets were small and the competition unforgiving. It was beneficial for the athletes because they had never sailed like that before. It’s a little exclusive to have the Trials abroad because you won’t grow the depth in a class—you’ll end up with just a handful of decent sailors. For example, in the 470 class there are a lot of kids who are young and who don’t have the funding right now, but they were at the Trials giving everyone a go-around at the marks, they weren’t far off the pace, and they would never have been able to go to abroad to race an Olympic qualifying series.”

In addition to her own campaign and helping her husband with his 2000 Olympic effort in the Soling, Healy has been instrumental in assisting with US Sailing’s Olympic Development Program over the past years. Healy shared good-humored observations of how different the experience was in her day.

“Looking back, we did not have half of the amenities and resources they have available to them now like cell phones, cash machines, or even Google!” she said. “We would arrive in Europe and our boats wouldn’t be there and we wouldn’t know when the container was arriving. Competitors today have so much more communication available to them. Fundraising is facilitated by social media, which athletes can take advantage of to appeal to people who know little about sailing. It was also more difficult for women when I was campaigning—there is a difference in the way that their male counterparts treat them. It is much more respectful.”

After her official duties at the domestic Trials, Healy enjoyed the Games alongside friends in
Marseille supporting Team USA, and observed several positives that will serve athletes rolling into LA2028.

“It was heart-warming to see so many StFYC Members in Marseille supporting our sailors,” Healy said. “While the racing wasn’t too exciting to watch because there wasn’t much wind, there were many fans and family members rallying and supporting their athletes. I was impressed to see that the athlete voice is top of mind and that’s how the USOPC wants it. US Sailing is improving its approach to elite sailing competition and acting in the best interests of the whole athlete. I wish our sailors had done better this year, but I feel good about how the program worked, how the support systems worked and the communication. They were united, had an amazing collective experience and great team cohesiveness.”

Nonetheless, it is no secret that there is room for improvement for athletes to do well in 2028, and Healy places an emphasis on working together and training as a quad.

“You have to rely on your teammates to make each other faster. It was impressive during the Trials watching Charlie Mckee (coach to Bronze medalists Ian Barrows and Hans Henken) gather all the 49er sailors around a picnic table and they wouldn’t talk about who tacked on who or who won the start. They talked about their settings and how they were approaching the race. I also see a nice women’s quad developing in the ILCA 6 class. Naturally, in the last couple of months you are allowed to be selfish and on your own program, but we’re not going to get the best result as a country if we don’t all work together. Everyone needs to be of that frame of mind—you have to buy into the whole program and be part of the US Sailing Team. We have good potential in some classes, but success can’t be achieved in a vacuum.”

On Healy’s wish-list for LA2028 is to see the positive energy generated this year in Olympic sailing continue its momentum and focus on a full team effort because, as she well understands, thinking you can win at the Games all by yourself is unrealistic.

“Seeing everyone work together, get behind our representatives on the team and ensuring that we get some top finishes in the classes where we are strongest would be so great for our program,” she said. “There is a ground swell happening under ODP Manager Rosie Chapman’s direction and everyone involved feels like they are part of a movement, part of a culture. If you get second in the Trials and the representative gets a medal, you know you are a piece of that medal. Let’s bring back that national team spirit!”

Copy by Michelle Slade; courtesy St. Francis Sailing Foundation