Local to help ready Iceland sailors for 2028 Olympics
Mossel Bay's Rob Holden, a veteran sailing coach, is leaving on 18 April for Iceland, where he will provide guidance and a training programme for the Icelandic Sailing Federation in conjunction with the Olympic Committee.
The aim is to prepare an Icelandic sailing team for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Holden worked for the International Sailing Federation (World Sailing), for a number of years, travelling around the world, although Mossel Bay was his base throughout that period.
Now he is happy to be travelling less and spending more time in Mossel Bay, working as an independent coach, as well as helping to advance the Skipper Foundation NPO with his wife, Elfie, who started the foundation.
On 18 April, which incidentally is his 56th birthday, Holden will set off for London, via Johannesburg. From there he flies to Reykjavík, which is the capital and largest city of Iceland.
Training coaches
Holden says: "I will be training coaches and will work out for them how they train their coaches."
He notes that his aim is to increase the capacity for more people to learn to sail in Iceland and through that, to develop a high performance pathway for the Olympic Games. "We have five years to do it, basically."
He says: "I am training two coach developers and also a group of 12 coaches. The coach developers will remain in Iceland and keep doing courses."
Holden will visit Iceland regularly to check on the progress.
He will train people using entry level sailing boats and then move on to training them on Ilca 6 and 7s, as well as 49ers. The 29er is the pathway to the 49er.
Holden says the main sailing season in Iceland is mid-April to the beginning of October.
"Some people do sail for more months of the year, but in January and February the temperature is below zero, so those two months are out. A few people sail in December, but the water temperature is about 2°C."
Holden worked for World Sailing from 2011 until February last year.
Developing sailing programmes
For World Sailing he was the training delivery manager, developing sailing programmes in countries such as Sudan and Madagascar, but also visiting countries advanced in sailing, such as the United Kingdom and European countries, which were already competing in the Olympic Games. His focus areas were programme development and coach development, opening up opportunities for people to learn to sail in countries.
Holden will be in Iceland for 12 days.
He is also coaching a Mozambique sailor who has qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris this July.
He says: "I go to Mozambique to train her and she comes here. The sea here is better for training than in Mozambique and we have sport science people here, which Mozambique does not have.
"I prefer being at home to travelling around the world."
He notes that he and Elfie would like a high performance centre in Mossel Bay that trains people from Africa. "Our goal is developing the high performance area of the Skipper Foundation and attracting people from the continent."