Marblehead paralympic sailor ready for her third attempt

MARBLEHEAD – Sailor Maureen McKinnon-Tucker of Marblehead is nervous about her third Olympic attempt at the ongoing trials in Florida this month, mainly because her previous performances have set the bar so high.McKinnon-Tucker has become a record-breaker in the last decade by being the first woman to represent the United States on the Paralympic team and the first woman sailor ever to medal in the world after she won gold in Beijing in 2008.”I’m a little bit nervous for the trials,” said McKinnon-Tucker recently. “There’s a lot of pressure for performance from the last trials.”McKinnon-Tucker said she is challenging herself by competing in the 23-foot three-person sonar boat, a more difficult competition as compared to when she won gold in a two-person keel boat.”It’s a hard class to sail in,” she said. “There are a lot of very experienced people to compete against.”McKinnon-Tucker is attempting the three-person boat for a second time.She first sailed in the same class during her first Olympic attempt for the trials for the 2004 games in Greece, in which a third-place score kept her from a spot on the team.However, she sounded optimistic about her chances in the upcoming races during an interview before the trials started.”Sailing is a sport you can’t ever know all the things you need to know. No matter what happens, as a result in the next month of competition, I know I will be a better sailor when I’m done,” she said.Her perseverance comes as no surprise given the obstacles she’s overcome to dominate her sport.After she was paralzyed in 1995 when she broke her back after a fall from an ocean seawall in Maine, McKinnon-Tucker returned to sailing as a paraplegic only to race more competitively than before.”Once I got back after being disabled it meant a lot more to me than when I sailed as an able-bodied person,” she said. “It was a sport I could do easily, much like I used to as an able-bodied person.”In 2001, McKinnon-Tucker was invited to sail on a Paralympic-hopeful team. “I thought it was an incredible offer and I said yes right away,” she said.McKinnon-Tucker’s job on the boat is “trimming the sail and hiking,” which includes her holding onto a rope and leaning out over the water to keep the boat level.”To be good at sailing you also need to be good at the mental game of it, but it’s very physical for a paraplegic to sail,” she said. “Getting across the boat requires a lot of athleticism.”In order to stay in shape for the week-long race trials, McKinnon-Tucker trained at Get In Shape for Women in Marblehead.”Get In Shape for Women in Marblehead has sponsored me and kept me strong the last few years so I can do what is commonly perceived as a man’s job on a sailboat,” she said.McKinnon-Tucker will know by the end of the month whether she will be representing her country in this summer’s games in London.