Olympic sailing champions Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr reflect on historic gold: "We are both crazy"
The Austrian duo sat down with Olympics.com in Estoril after receiving the award for Best Mixed Team in an Individual Sport. They won the inaugural Olympic staging of sailing's mixed dinghy competition.
Sailing
What is the secret behind the unrivalled success of Olympic champion sailors Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr?
"We cannot share the secret, come on," says Vadlau, before adding: "We are both crazy, that's it."
The history-making Austrians were in a jovial mood in a recent sit-down with Olympics.com, as they were honoured with the ANOC Award for Best Mixed Team in an Individual Sport of Paris 2024.
The duo claimed the inaugural Olympic staging of the mixed dinghy competition at this year's Games.
"The start of this year was really crazy... [but we] ended up with the biggest achievement that is possible in our sport of sailing," said Maehr before Vadlau chimed in: "It fulfilled a lifelong dream."
It was the first of just two Austrian gold medals at Paris, and marked the nation's first Olympic gold in sailing since Athens 2004.
"Austria has a long sailing history," Maehr explained. "For many, many decades now, we've [been] trying to bring this sport - and now we've achieved [in bringing it] - to the top level, top Olympic level of sailors. I think we do a very good job in forwarding this knowledge, this knowhow, to the next generation [of Austrians].
He added: "I think also you always need some crazy people like Lara and me who dedicate their life not only to the sailing, but also to the Olympic spirit, to Olympic sailing. We love it. And so this is the outcome."
Vadlau & Maehr: "We were not jumping into cold water"
Vadlau and Maehr weren't the favourites heading into the new Olympic event, but spent some three months mastering the Marseille bay where the Paris 2024 sailing was held.
After a disappointing Rio 2016 for Vadlau, where she and Jolanta Ogar-Hill were medal contenders, she stepped away from the sport, studying medicine and becoming a doctor. She and Maehr joined forces after the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.
An added advantage they had in their new partnership: Familiarity.
"We've known each other for many, many years; we were training partners together before our class became mixed, so we were not jumping into cold water," said Vadlau. "We knew what might [be possible] for us... [and] to be honest, of course we had a dream to reach a medal at the Olympic Games, but to achieve this outcome, we couldn't have believed" it previously.
Their shared commitment to excellence coupled with Austria's sailing legacy made for the perfect recipe.
"Only if two [sailors] are working together 100 percent, giving everything... [then] the outcome is the gold medal," Maehr said. "And I think this is [the biggest strength] of our team."
Vadlau underlines just how much, exactly, those shared goals served them: "[We want] to be the best of the best to stand on top of the world," she said. "And this goal really puts us together. We are more than a team."
Dr. Vadlau praises her partner's commitment
It was in late October that Vadlau and Maehr were awarded alongside other Olympic champions in Estoril, Portugal, for the ANOC Awards, including athletics superstars Julien Alfred, Letsile Tebogo and canoeing legend Lisa Carrington.
"For us, it's really an incredible award," Vadlau said. "When somebody told us that we would win it, we were both quite speechless. My friends ask me, 'What is it about, this award?' And I said, 'This is like winning an Oscar, you know?'"
Having stepped away from the sport after Rio, Vadlau was well into her medical studies when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Because of the flexible nature of social distancing, however, her course work was online, allowing her to throw herself full-throttle into her new partnership with Maehr.
"Everything was online, so I was super lucky because we could go training and I could write my exams from far away," she said.
But it was more than just physical flexibility: It was about a unique partnership that Vadlau and Maehr were both uniquely committed to.
"[It was] a great team effort, a team job," she said. "This wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have a partner who didn't understand this or who was not supporting me. You can imagine, as I was writing my doctoral thesis, Lukas was especially focussing on the boat, on the work with the material, and he helped me a lot to have my back free to concentrate on my studies.
"And without that, it wouldn't have been possible."