"Girls for Paris": Nadine Böhm and Lena Weißkichel in the 49erFX: On course for the Olympics with a battle cry, a gold target and a lot of work

They are the newcomers in the women's skiff: Nadine Böhm and Lena Weißkichel have formed a 49erFX team and are training intensively for their Olympic promotion. They have made "Girls for Paris" their team name. "It's like a kind of battle cry," explains Lena. They have also deliberately set themselves the highest possible goal: "We're going for it. We're going to Paris. We want gold." Above all, they are driving themselves on. Because they both know that: The road to the Olympic podium is long and thorny. Almost two and a half years of hard work, the search for sponsors, which has not become any easier in recent times, regatta challenges, progress and setbacks as well as high qualification hurdles await the dissimilar yet harmonious sailing duo.

The 29-year-old former 470 helmswoman Nadine Böhm and her 22-year-old foresailor Lena Weißkichel are still largely operating outside of the association structures without any claim to a squad. Although this means some freedom for the 49erFX newcomers, who only started out last year, it also means a high financial burden. Which is why the goal for the season is clearly defined: a place in the top eight at the Skiff World Championships at the beginning of September in the Canadian waters off Halifax in order to make the leap into the DSV team and into the association's funding programme. Nadine Boehm and Lena Weißkichel's endeavours at this stage are somewhat reminiscent of Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel. The two 470 sailors launched a last-minute campaign at their own expense ahead of the 2021 Olympic Games in Japan and came through the national Olympic qualifiers with nerves of steel. Before Enoshima, Wanser/Winkel could even have won an Olympic medal coup if it hadn't been for the controversial harsh disqualifications due to harness trousers weighing 200 grams too much.

Nadine Böhm and Lena Weißkichel are ambitious, fearless and with a broad horizon as a new formation in the 49erFX. Their new discipline was characterised in Germany for around a decade by the constant duel between Vicky Jurczok/Anika Lorenz and Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke. The latter silver-plated their Olympic career last year in Japan. Now the next generation of German women skiff sailors is on the move. These include the still-young prospective squad sailors Marla Bergmann, 20/Hanna Wille, 21, from the Mühlenberger Segel-Club on the banks of the Elbe in Hamburg and the Kiel Yacht Club crew Maru Scheel, 22/Freya Feilcke, 21.

Lena Weißkichel knows: "The young teams currently have more water hours in FX and correspondingly good boat handling ahead of us. We are the newcomers, but we bring some experience with us: Nadi has the tools and the structured way of working from two Olympic campaigns in the 470. That's an advantage over the younger teams in the German Sailing Team. I was active in three Olympic classes (editor's note: Laser, Nacra 17, 49erFX) and bring experience from the big boat and offshore sector."

With "magenta mentor" from the America's Cup

Lena Weißkichel, a passionate ambassador for her sport and a refreshing pioneer at sailing events such as the Silverrudder solo round-Funen regatta, had been aiming for an Olympic campaign with Max Gurgel from Hamburg in the new mixed offshore discipline before her current involvement. The World Sailing Federation's proposal to include keelboat sailing with mixed two-person teams in the Olympic programme had received a lot of support in international sailing, but was shot down by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, Lena's many years of intensive work at sea, including her work as a young navigator on board Sönke Meier-Sawatzki's ClubSwan "Niramo", have given her "a lot of valuable knowledge and a strong international network", she says. As a member of The Magenta Project team, Lena Weißkichel is one of more than 100 young female sailors who can draw on the advice of her personal and prominent mentor Tom Burnham, who was Head Coach for the America's Cup team American Magic. "If we ever get stuck," says Lena, "there are also some world-class trimmers who I've met on big boat engagements and who I can ask at any time. A network has developed that I would never want to do without."

Over the past few months, Nadine Böhm and Lena Weißkichel have also worked intensively with coach Jorge Lima. The brother of Laser ace Gustavo Lima, who sails the 49er, can also join the sailors on board himself if necessary and take direct action. The Portuguese sailor finished sixth with his helmsman Jose Costa at the Olympic regatta off Enoshima and is one of the best 49er headsailers in the world. With Lima, the German skiff sailors were also able to win the Americans Lucy Wilmot and Erika Reinke as top sparring partners. In preparation for the season opener at the Trofeo Princesa Sofía, Böhm and Weißkichel are currently working on Mallorca without a sailing coach, but with their mental coaches Marko Bauchrowitz from Hamburg and Nina Spiel from Bingen to develop and refine approaches and tools for their competitions. The first major regatta of the year from 4 April should give the "Girls for Paris" an insight into how this and the winter work will pay off.

The "Girls for Paris" get on well both on board and ashore. "We are honest in our dealings with each other. Nadi is very analytical, always wants to understand everything down to the smallest detail, is a strong tactician, rather aggressive and a cheerful person," says Lena. Not a day goes by without the crew taking stock and addressing every little "old problem" so that it doesn't become a problem in the first place. They enjoy the support of the German Touring Yacht Club (DTYC), where, after completing her degree in economics, Böhm is responsible for coordinating youth work and trains the B-Youth. She also works as a private coach herself. Lena Weißkichel, originally from Steinhuder Meer, has found a new club home at the Württemberg Yacht Club (WYC). At the renowned club on Lake Constance, it was not only the Diesch sailing dynasty that repeatedly produced medal-winning performances over the decades.

"We believe in our potential, but we still have a lot to learn, especially in the area of boat handling," says Lena Weißkichel after their first winter season together. A first race win at a training regatta off Mallorca showed that her team is sailing a promising course. 3 June 2021 marked the sailors' first joint 49erFX outing. Three years later, they want to be there on 26 July 2024 when the athletes celebrate the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games with a boat parade on the Seine in Paris before the Olympic regatta begins. There is not much time left for the ambitious summit attempt, but Nadine Böhm and Lena Weißkichel want to make the most of it.