When the U.S. Disabled Sailing Team AlphaGraphics departs for the 2012 Paralympic Games, a University alumnus will be at the helm.
Mark Leblanc, who graduated in engineering in 2008, will compete for the United States at the games in London.
Leblanc said he has never viewed his disability as an obstacle.
“Technically, I am a congenital amputee below the left elbow,” Leblanc said. “In short, I have one arm. Personally, I do not see it as a disability at all. I have a twin brother, and growing up my parents did not treat us any differently.”
Leblanc began sailing at a young age with the Southern Yacht Club out of New Orleans, just as his father and grandfather had done before him. He began competing when he was 11 and participated in national regattas in high school.
At the University, Leblanc was an active member of the now-defunct LSU Sailing Club.
In 2007, Leblanc’s Olympic aspirations developed in earnest, he said. That summer he chartered a 2.4-meter boat and competed in St. Petersburg, Fla. He finished eighth out of 16 competitors and was invited to train with the U.S. Disabled Sailing Team AlphaGraphics.
At approximately eight feet in length, the 2.4-meter boat is small and well-suited for use by disabled athletes, Leblanc said. Because of the level playing field that boat class provides, disabled sailors routinely beat their able-bodied counter parts.
“Usually the abled-body boats are much more physical boats,” Leblanc said. “They require you to jump around and use your weight. In the 2.4, you are not jumping back and forth. You are sitting and watching. You have to pay attention and make the right tactical moves.”
It was after a training trip to Finland during summer 2007 that Leblanc said he felt he had a good shot at making it to the Paralympics.
“That was the point where I came to my own at a national level,” Leblanc said. “That fall I took a semester off from LSU and focused on the trials.”
Leblanc fell just short of
qualification for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and was listed as an alternate.
Betsy Alison, head coach of U.S. Disabled Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, said after losing his spot to compete in Beijing in a triple tiebreak, Leblanc made significant improvements with his coach, Marco Dahlberg.
“He is one of the fastest guys in the world,” Alison said. “He has finished in the top six in the last few world cup events.”
In the months leading up to his August departure for the games, Leblanc will travel extensively to train. His competition schedule includes races in Florida, Rhode Island, the Netherlands, France, Germany and warm-up races at the Paralympic venue in Weymouth, U.K.
Leblanc said race experience is a crucial aspect of his training that cannot be replicated in solo training. He said dealing with a hectic start is very important to race success.
“You have a 100-foot-wide starting line with 20 to 30 boats going five miles an hour right next to each other. Sailors are shouting at each other, sometimes crashing into each other. It is just mayhem,” he said. “The 30 to 45 seconds before the race is when the boats go to cross the line. It is the most hectic. A bad start can cost you four or five places in the race.”
In addition to a strenuous training and competition schedule, Leblanc must also raise funds for his Paralympic campaign. Transportation, coaching fees, shipping boats and equipment fees for this year will cost Leblanc approximately $130,000, he said.
Funding from United States Paralympics attempts to cover some of the costs of elite coaching, shipping equipment and transportation, but most athletes need to supplement the funds they receive, Alison said.
Leblanc has attempted to reach out to potential donors through his personal website, team-leblanc.com.
“We are amateurs competing in a professional world,” he said. “You can say to yourself, ‘Do I need to buy clothes this week, or should I pay for a personal trainer?'”
Leblanc is confident that he can strike a proper balance in fundraising and training and that he will be ready to compete when sailing begins Sept. 1.
Promising finishes in races and a current sixth-place ranking by the International Association for Disabled Sailing suggest Leblanc could have a successful showing at the Paralympics.
“My plan is to bring home a medal,” Leblanc said. “I placed fourth in Weymouth in 2011. I am consistently in the top five and ten in racing. I’ve got things to work on, but it’s not a long list.”
Alison predicted a strong showing from the entire team, including Leblanc.
“There are probably six people in the world that could win a medal at the games, and he is right there with them. If he focuses on making the right moves, there is a really good chance that he could end up on the podium.”
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Contact Paul Braun at [email protected]