Murphy ready to go it alone

Annalise Murphy was always encouraged to be independent.

When she was 16, she went to Los Angeles by herself, booking her own flights. Two years later, she drove to the continent to participate in the European senior and junior championships.

“It was all going to work out fine; I had to pass my driving test, then I had my Leaving Cert, and then three days after that, we were driving off.

“Then my sister had to pass her driving test, which she managed not to do. She managed to fail two driving tests before we were going away, and suddenly a day before we were going it was like ‘oh no, I’m going to have to do all the driving’.

“We just packed up — three boats on a trailer hooked on to the back of [my parents’] car — and drove off to Belgium. I was in Belgium for two and a half weeks and then my sister flew home and I drove on myself to Duarnier in France.

“My dad didn’t believe in GPS so he gave me a map of Europe, and it wasn’t even a detailed map; it was just a map with a couple of roads on it.

“So I headed to Duarnier and ended up missing the turn-off and nearly ended up in Paris. I was nearly going to go to Disneyland Paris for the day, but I managed to take about 500 roundabouts back to the right road.

“That was for the Youth Europeans, which I finished fourth in. And then I drove home from there. That was my sixth-year holiday.”

This is all delivered matter of factly, although there a few nervous giggles too. The 22-year-old from Rathfarnham may be generally self-contained, but the sudden burst of media attention that has surrounded her since qualifying for the Olympics at the world championships in Perth last year has been something new to deal with it. Sailing came as naturally to Murphy as riding horses did to Joseph O’Brien or Ruby Walsh. Her mother, Cathy (née McAleavey) competed at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the first time women were allowed to sail at the Games.

Five years later, Cathy and her husband Con were part of Steve Fossett’s crew on the trimaran Lakota, which set the Round Ireland speed record. Their experiences are invaluable to Annalise.

“For my mum, they made a lot of classic Olympic mistakes. They bought into rumours that some new sails were going to be better than everyone else’s. So they changed their sails.

“And there were other things like she didn’t like her pillow in the Olympic village, which sounds stupid and she says it is stupid, but at the time it was something that upset her.

“I guess it’s kind of nice in a way that because she went through the whole Olympic experience, there is no kind of pressure in my house.”

Murphy first crewed for her mother as a six-year-old. Travelling on her own to LA or Europe was a natural progression after that.

Such single-mindedness is essential, given hers is a solitary discipline and requires round-the-clock preparation. Being 6’1” is a significant advantage but would be useless on its own.

In one five-week period, Murphy cycled 1,000km Combining that cycling regime with the power work in the gym, little wonder she deferred her studies. Sailing six days a week and attending the regular briefs and debriefs as well, she is lucky to find time to eat and sleep.

Being the only woman on the high performance team can have its drawbacks, especially when she is sharing accommodation with the 49ers, Matt McGovern and Ryan Seaton.

“I really like cooking except sometimes I feel like a sort of slave. They’re putting in orders for dinner — ‘I’d really like lasagna tonight’… ‘Not having it, guys!’

“Generally we’ll do one big shop and you go, ‘Okay, we need six nights’ dinners’. Last year I thought I was being really smart making two lasagnas for two nights. Suddenly I’d look and both of them were gone.

“‘Who’s eaten all the lasagna?’ ‘Oh sorry, we were hungry’. There was enough for about 20 people there!”

Regardless of such little trials, Murphy is fortunate to be part of a high performance system that was based on amateur boxing’s. The Irish Sailing Association delivered on all its targets to date — exceeded them, in fact.

While the Star duo of David Burrows and Peter O’Leary are considered most likely to secure an Olympic medal, Murphy’s podium finish at the recent Skandia Sail For Gold regatta over the Olympic course at Weymouth give her a very good chance too. She does her best to play that down.

“It’s [high performance director] James [O’Callaghan]’s target, and you see it up on the wall. And I can’t say that I don’t want to win a medal — it is more than anything what I want.

“But realistically, my goal is to finish in the top 10, to have a good Olympic experience and then be prepared so I can hopefully go on and compete in 2016 and be a medal contender.

“Two girls in the world at the moment, a Belgian [Evi Van Acker] and a Dutch girl (Marit Bouwmeester), and for the last two and a half years, they haven’t been out of the top three. That leaves one place.

“Now maybe they won’t have their [best] events but you are competing against real experienced people — some of the girls I am competing against have been to four Olympics.

“They have experience I don’t, so I am going there realistic. I don’t want to go thinking I should win a medal. If I have a brilliant week, maybe everything will go well but I just want to go and enjoy it, enjoy the experience.”