Patience is a virtue for Tiree sailor
Being confined to dry land for three months was not what Luke Patience had in mind as he headed towards his third Olympic Games.
But the Tiree sailor is going with the flow as the world steadily works towards getting back on an even keel after the coronavirus pandemic.
The 33-year-old and his fellow sailors were the first Team GB athletes picked for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
And, following the decision to postpone the Games by 12 months because of Covid-19, the Royal Yachting Association’s selection committee confirmed Patience and his colleagues’ qualification carries over.
After some early deliberation on the matter of the postponement, the reluctant landlubber has turned the whole experience into a positive.
‘At first I was almost despondent, but I think that was because of having to wait another year. But now, I see it as a wonderful opportunity to be better than I was going to be. And to do another year of what I love.’
Had coronavirus not happened Patience would already have competed in the World Championships in Palma, Majorca, which was about to start when lock down began.
‘Obviously it was cancelled, but essentially we were mid season and competing all over
Europe,’ he added, ‘then we would have been on multiple trips to Japan getting prepared. It all just turned off over night – very strange.’
A member of the British Sailing Team and the Tiree Maritime Trust, Patience left the island last Thursday, June 29, to return to training having spent lockdown with his parents at the family home in Caolis where they have lived for around 10 years.
‘My father, John, had been going to Tiree for 30 or 40 years, he always considered it a second home,’ said Patience, who was born in Aberdeen, grew up in Rhu and went to school in Helensburgh.
‘I’ve had a mixed upbringing geographically. I consider them all a home and feel affiliated to all three areas. But now, Tiree is home.
‘Lockdown on the island has been a good experience for me both mentally and physically.
‘Switching off, reflecting. It’s so rare to get that time to stop and think about everything. Particularly on where I was at, if I was on target and really be critical and ask myself what more I can do. I’ve fished a lot over this time, it really switches me off.
‘I think I am fitter than I’ve ever been, purely because I can dedicate way more time to it than normal when I’m travelling and sailing.
‘I’ve done a lot of road biking and basically made a gym out of everything heavy in the garden!’
Luke Patience spent lockdown at parent’s home on the island of Tiree.
Patience won a silver medallist in the 470 class at the 2012 London Olympics along with his then sailing partner Stuart Bithill.
For Rio 2016 Patience formed a new partnership with Elliot Willis, but when Willis was diagnosed with cancer just months before the Games, Patience called on Chester’s Chris Grube to step in – and they finished a credible fifth. Since then the duo have notched wins at the Enoshima Olympic Week, the 470 North American Championships and the Miami round of the 2018 World Cup Series.
The partnership will continue in Tokyo next year.
‘We will push everyday for another year and try and bring home Gold to UK soil,’ concluded Patience.