Hold Fast: An Olympic Sailing Podcast

Born and raised in San Francisco, California, Daniela Moroz was the child of two windsurfing enthusiasts. She started kitesurfing at the age of 11 and then quickly progressed to hydrofoil boards and races in front of St. Francis Yacht Club on Thursday nights. It proved a promising training ground and she won her first world championship merely 4 years later at the age of 15. But, kite-foiling was a young sport and it took hard work for her to maintain her dominance over the fleet as it evolved. Kite-foiling was added to the list of sailing events at the Olympic games starting in 2024 and there Daniela hopes to reap the rewards of many years dominance in her discipline.

Nathan Housberg and sports psychologist Dr. Tim Herzog interview 2016 Rio Olympian Joe Morris.

Joe Morris got into sailing later than most, but that did not stop him. He dreamt about going to the Olympics and, in college, made lists of teammates who he thought he might attempt it with. But, his first job out of college brought him to Switzerland until he got a call by one of his college friends at just the right moment. He dropped everything and started training in the 49er sailboat with Thomas Barrows towards the Rio Olympic trials. They were behind from the beginning and a severe shoulder injury 6 months before the trials did not help their case.

Chris Rast has been to the Olympics 4 times. Three as a sailor, one as a coach. Two as a skipper and one as a crew. Once in the 470 sailboat and twice in the 49er sailboat. Three times representing Switzerland and once representing the United States. He is by far the most experienced Olympian we've had on the podcast so far and the diversity of his experiences makes for a riveting conversation. He shares his start in the 470 being coached by the winningest Olympic sailing coach of all time. How he learned from going to the Olympics as a coach and how he worked to improve his teamwork with each of his different teammates.

Paris Henken is just barely getting back into the swing of college when she gets asked yet again to do a new campaign for the Olympics. This time with the most recent us sailing gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias. Paris shares what went into her decision to return to the campaign trail even before she'd finished school again and how her campaign faced some tough questions along the way. Her coach Willie McBride shares why he always had confidence in them and Paris shares the toughest part of not qualifying for Tokyo. Hint: It's not what you might think.

Join Nathan Housberg and his co-host, certified mental performance consultant and licensed psychologist, Dr. Tim Herzog for part two of their interview with Paris Henken and her coach Willie McBride.

Paris Henken is from Coronado California where she first learned how to sail 29ers. She was still in high-school when she got to try the 49erFX, the then new women's Olympic class sailboat. Her good family friend happened to be the high-performance director of US Olympic sailing and pushed her to give it a go with teammate Helena Scutt. The journey wasn't easy and had one especially uncomfortable speed bump in a foreign hospital, but eventually the pair made it to the Olympics with a little help from their coach Willie McBride.

On this episode we talk to both Paris and her coach Willie about that journey and how they tackled some of the challenges along the way.

In part two of our interview Caroline Atwood shares how a dramatic crash impacted her confidence going into trials and how social media added anxiety to her preparation. Dr. Tim Herzog digs deeper into how social media effects our daily mental health and performance. And Caroline shares how Olympic campaigning can be a really lonely pursuit at times.

For the first time ever on Hold Fast we are joined by a new co-host, Dr Tim Herzog, a sports psychologist and clinical psychiatrist to improve our focus on athlete mental health and psychological performance. 

Caroline Atwood takes us through her journey through three different Olympic class sailboats and three different teammates before the Nacra17 sailboat that would be her official bid for the Tokyo Olympics. Along the way we tackle issues of teamwork, anxiety, even PTSD with Dr. Tim Herzog.

In part 1 Erika was crushing it! She graduated from Boston College, won a college national championship, and the Rolex yachtswoman of the year award. But, in part two, her strongest domestic rival, Paige Railey, returns to competition and this knocks Erika out of her groove. She finishes the first half of the two part Olympic trials significantly behind, but shows promise in some following events. She takes us through part two of the trials as she tries to come from behind to get her Tokyo 2020 Olympics berth. And she shares more about her new campaign for Paris 2024 in the 49erFX with teammate Lucy Wilmot.