Marshall and Ford McCann: U.S. Sailing’s identical twins vying for the same spot on the 2024 Olympic team
Ahead of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, the McCann twins spoke to Olympics.com about the years of work they have put in for a single place on the Olympic team.
Sailing
Teammates. Competitors. Identical twins.
U.S. Sailing’s Marshall and Ford McCann have both dreamt of representing the United States at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 for a long time, and they’ve always known only one of them could be selected.
That’s not how they look at it, though.
For the first 18 years of their lives, the twins shared almost everything: friends, hobbies, a bedroom - even Olympic dreams. According to Ford, around "a 99 percentile of our life that was spent within 50 feet of each other."
After choosing different universities and living across the country from one another for four years, the duo has been back together since the summer of 2022, when they began campaigning for Paris.
They recently returned from 2024 ILCA 7 World Championship in Adelaide, Australia, where they emerged as the top two Americans in their class.
Kicking off this Saturday (17 February), they will go head-to-head against each other and 35 other athletes at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, where just one person will be named to the team.
The United States still needs to obtain an Olympic quota for the ILCA 7 class at the 2024 Last Chance Regatta in April at the Olympic venue in Hyéres, France to send a boat to the Summer Games.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Marshall McCann of U.S. Sailing racing at the Ft. Lauderdale U.S. Open Series in January 2022.
If one twin wins
When the twins first realized they had a shot at representing their country at the Olympic Games, their second realization was: “Wait, that means only one of us can go.”
Rather than shying away from the idea of one being selected for the Olympic team and the other being left behind, the two adopted the narrative that “together is stronger.”
“We had to completely realize that in order for one of us to even have the chance to be the best, we needed to work together,” Marshall said.
They have never wavered from the idea that they are teammates before competitors, and if either of them takes that Olympic team spot, neither will slow down until the Games are done.
“When we set out, the goal that we set was we wanted a McCann at the Olympics. And then we realized we want The McCanns at the Olympics.
“We are such a committed team that we want to train together and continue to push each other all the way through the end of the challenge.”
Two bodies, one brain
Separated for the first time at university age, it wasn’t until the twins began settling into their respective schools that they understood just how connected they had been for their entire lives.
They had never had a bedroom they didn’t share and the longest consecutive period they’d spent apart was just “seven or eight days.”
“I realized I didn’t even know how to tell punchlines,” Ford laughed.
“I could tell a whole story dramatically and then I’d be like, oh my god, I don’t even know the punchline because this is always when Marshall puts his hand on my shoulder and then he takes it to the finish line.”
Although an adjustment at first, the two look back on their separate paths with gratitude. In the end, they both thrived in their new environments.
Ford went to Georgetown University in Washington D.C. where he studied finance. Marshall stayed south, where he studied engineering at the University of Miami. Both continued to sail at their respective schools, until Ford moved down to Miami to live with Marshall and the two began campaigning for Paris.
Now, reunited as roommates and teammates for nearly two years, they are pushing themselves harder and farther than would be possible as individuals.
U.S. Sailing's Ford McCann on the water in Paracas, Peru in 2023.
U.S. Olympic Trials along the road to Paris
The McCanns recently returned from Australia, where they raced in both the 2024 Oceania & Australian ILCA Open & Youth Championships and 2024 ILCA 7 World Championship, with mixed emotions.
Although they came home from Worlds as the top two Americans in their class and with new personal bests, they narrowly missed the top-seven mark required to obtain an Olympic Quota for the USA, after finishing in 10th.
“To be so close to the goal and miss is devastating,” Ford wrote in a post on his Instagram, recapping their “month Down Under.”
“To be frank, it was one of the hardest months of my life. The effort, the time, and the excitement of the moment is extraordinary but also exhausting. The worthy challenges in life require patience, and then some. Feeling very rewarded and grateful to be able to have the opportunity to chase a great challenge.”
But hope is far from lost. They will have one more opportunity to obtain an Olympic quota at the 2024 Last Chance Regatta in April at the Olympic venue in Hyéres, France.
With U.S. Olympic Team Trials races beginning on Saturday, 17 February, the McCann twins will face their next challenge as they go head-to-head against each other and 35 more athletes in attempts to take the single ILCA 7 spot on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team.