Nikola Girke forms a strong Canadian entry in the 470 class with Jennifer Provan. At the recent European championships they placed a subpar 18th but the Olympic berth was already in the bag after a 10th place finish a few weeks earlier at the world championships
"Unfortunately the result placing at the Europeans was not as high as we expected, but not all was lost," said Girke. "During our lead up to the world championships in May we sailed and competed knowing that we had done our work and put in our time."
The women's 470 discipline made its debut in the Olympics in 1976 but wasn't an official event at the Games until 1988. The four-metre, 70-cm (approximately 15-and-a-half-foot) boat is not easy to handle, says Girke.
"It's a very smooth boat but it's really technical, so there's a lot of boat work and figuring out the rig tension and different sails that you can use. It's a pretty difficult boat to master."
Girke took up sailing at age nine and entered her first competition at 12. She has a degree in human kinetics from the University of British Columbia.
