Clara Gravely: Sailing Towards the Olympic Games

Clara Gravely is sitting in her sailboat. Her hands play nervously with the ropes of her Laser Radial. Both her shirt and the sail of her boat are emblazoned with the Canadian flag. Her gaze is fixed on the open sea ahead. In the corner of her eyes, she perceives her competitors. They are all waiting for the starting signal. In a few seconds, Gravely’s biggest dream will come true, everything she has been working towards until now: she will sail for her country in the Olympic Games.

Gravely already had this Olympic dream when she didn’t even sail yet.

“Every sport that I saw, I was so fired up and wanted to do that in some way. And now that I am sailing competitively, that’s kind of what keeps fueling the fire—to make it there,” Gravely says.

She often thinks back to the start of her sailing career. She wouldn’t describe it as “love at first sail.” The first time Gravely has ever been on a boat was when her father took the whole family to a keelboat course in New York City to get certified to sail together. Gravely ended up getting horribly seasick.

Despite this, she decided to give sailing another try and signed up for a sailing camp at Ashbridge’s Bay Yacht Club (ABYC).

Sailing in a smaller boat, Gravely felt much better. She enjoyed it and was performing well on the water. She stood out to the instructors for more reasons than just being the camp’s oldest participant at 12 years old.

“I completed the first three levels all in one go. Then I could move on into a Laser with people that were my age,” Gravely remembers.

When Gravely came home after a day at camp, there was only one subject for her at the dinner table.

“I told endless stories about sailing, like ‘one time today, this person was coming in, and I dodged them,’ just interrupting every other conversation. My family was probably so sick of it,” she says, laughing.

Gravely returned for another summer, and another. After two years, she started racing with ABYC’s senior team instead of going to camp. But she wanted more.

When the Ontario Sailing Team tryouts were coming up, Gravely didn’t think she was good enough yet. She just went there for the experience. But one month later, Gravely received an e-mail inviting her to join the Ontario Sailing Tier 1 team.

“I guess they saw the potential I brought with me and my interest in the sport. I was very shocked, but I just rolled with it. That was my big opportunity,” says Gravely.

But that also meant she had to invest more time in sailing. A full summer of training—three or four times a week in the spring and in the fall—plus two to three trips to Florida to stay fit during the winter.

Even though Gravely was still in high school at the time, she was certain that sailing was her path. She gave up her other hobbies to focus more on the sport. She has a passion for sailing; it inspires her.

“Sailing is like a puzzle with many moving pieces that you have to figure out in an intense sporting situation. The factors change all the time, and you have to figure out the best strategy based on where the wind is and where you should best place yourself compared to the other boat. So, it’s a good thinking sport,” Gravely says.

Gravely’s first goal on the Ontario Sailing Team was to qualify for the Youth World Championship. The first year that she went to the qualifiers, she didn’t succeed. But she worked even harder on herself for the next year.

“There was only one other girl who was in close competition with me. But I was racing really poorly the entire regatta because I was stressed out and so nervous,” Gravely recalls. “On the last day, I finally pulled it together and crushed it.” When she won and qualified for the Youth World Championship in China, she had a big smile on her face.

That moment propelled Gravely’s sailing career. It helped her get noticed by coaches from the national team. She quickly progressed from casual training with the senior girls to making the national team. That way, she ended up going to the Senior World Championships in 2019, and many more international races followed.

When she shows up at regattas, Gravely is trying not to measure herself against everyone else. This mindset distinguishes her from other sailors.

“If you’re constantly stressed about comparing yourself to others, then you’re not taking risks or working on specific skills. It doesn’t end up getting you closer to your goal of improving,” she says. “Plus, you’re going to get pretty worn out by it and down on yourself.”

This strong mentality also helps Gravely process her sadness after a terrible regatta.

“After a bad race, my coach Lisa Ross and I don’t talk about what could have been, but we talk about the goals I met and what I improved on,” Gravely says. “That’s the only way I can have a sustainable career. I can’t be crushed by every loss or let this roller coaster of emotions get to me. I have tangible goals that I’m working towards.”

Sailing is a huge part of Gravely’s life, and even though she would love to be out on the water in her Laser all the time, she eventually had to think about her future. She wasn’t looking towards a certain career but chose to study Geography and Biology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

It was a hectic time for Gravely. She rescheduled exams to attend races and stayed up late at regattas to work on school papers.

“I was traveling and sailing so much that I was exhausted and got sick constantly. It was hard making the decisions about what to prioritize: schoolwork or sailing,” Gravely says. “But I know my goals; I know what I am working towards. I don’t give up on anything; I am not a quitter, and I don’t want to betray my values. That’s how I pushed through.”

After graduating, Gravely decided to make the switch to sailing full-time. Now that she’s able to fully concentrate on her performance on the water, she is already seeing progress. The 23-year-old is looking ahead to the future now, to the upcoming season with the European Championship in Italy and the trials for the Olympic Games, which mark the beginning of the season in April.

Gravely is working as hard as she can on herself, physically and mentally, to prepare for her biggest goal. Even though her chances of qualifying for the Olympics in 2024 are small, she still doesn’t lose her positive attitude.

“Nothing is fixed; anything can really happen at trials. I’m in the game and want to compete with everyone, but I’m not necessarily expecting to qualify right away. I want to be in a really good position at the trials and then go take it forward to 2028,” she says.

There’s only one free spot for the Olympic Games, two trials to find out who is worthy of representing Canada in 2024, and a whole national team racing against each other.