Alejandro Foglia has competed in three Olympic Games in the Laser class finishing 34th in 2004, 17th in 2008 and 8th in 2012. For his campaign for 2016 he switched to the Finn class in 2012.
PROFILE:
Name: Alejandro Foglia
Country: Uruguay
Date of Birth: 30/1/1984
ISAF ID: URUAF9
London 2012
“At the 2012 London Olympic Games I was sailing in the Laser and after 14 years in the Laser I wanted to make a change because I was also quite a big guy and I was always on a diet because I had to be 84-85 kg, so it was hard for me. In London I finished eighth. I was quite happy with that and I had achieved my goals, so it was a good moment to quit the Laser and look for another goal. The Finn was my best option.”
Valencia
“I came to Valencia in the beginning with Luca Devoti in October 2012 and it was a great experience because I had never sailed the Finn in my life. I remember it was a windy day and it was quite hard to control the boat in strong wind and big waves because I was still 85 kg, but it was good fun.
“I thought to myself this is a boat I like, a boat I like a lot. I decided to try to make a campaign for the next Olympics, for the next Olympic cycle to Rio 2016, and my best option was to come to Valencia and the Dinghy Academy because they had all the equipment. Luca was the coach and he has such a lot experience with the materials and the construction of the boats, so he helped me a lot.”
“Also the FIDeS development programme in the Finn Class has supported me to come here for training.”
The Finn International Development (FIDeS) programme has part funded four sailors each year to train and use the extensive facilities at the Dinghy Academy in Valencia.
“I was living in Barcelona and I finished my career there and I came to live in Valencia, but then I got a injury in my back. I wanted to train every day but my back was hurting so much I couldn’t do anything, so I went back to Uruguay to recover there and at the end of 2013 I came back to Valencia to slowly start training again and improving. Since then I am quite happy with my improvements in Valencia. I am learning a lot every day and my level is increasing so I am quite happy with that.”
Crowdfunding
Alejandro ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund a new mast that he needed to progress his campaign.
“Because the support from Uruguay is not that much I had an opportunity. Someone in Uruguay contacted me and showed me his crowd funding programme. So we did a crowd funding campaign to buy a Wilke mast. It took two months to reach the target and raise enough money for the mast.”
“Crowdfunding is a good thing because when you have some rewards, depending on the amount you are asking from the people, so the more money you ask the bigger the reward the person gets. For example one day of sailing with me or some training programme, some T-shirts from the team and so on. It’s a good thing because you interact with the people and the people get to know you a lot. On your web page you can have your history there and a video showing what you are doing, your training on the water and in the gym, your diet, so it’s nice to interact.”
“So now FIDeS is doing a bigger crowdfunding campaign which will be good because a lot of Finn sailors need some expensive equipment. It is for the sailors who don’t have much support from their countries, especially in South America the support is not much. This crowdfunding is a good thing to help all the sailors.”
Expectation of qualifying in Takapuna
“It will be hard,. Everyone is training hard for the qualification. A lot of countries and only four places so it will be a tough regatta. But I am quite confident with myself, my sailing and my preparation, so now I am quite calm with that. If I sail well and do what I have done in the regattas so far in Palma and the Europeans then I will qualify so I will take it easy, keep training and am looking forward to Takapuna.”
What would it mean to qualify for Rio?
“For Ururguay it is a big thing as well. We don’t have many Finns in Uruguay. The last Olympics where there was a Finn sailor from Uruguay was 1952 or something like that. For Uruguay is would be good, but also for the sport. There are sailors from Nacra, Laser Radiak and Laser are are also trying to qualify so it will be good to have a team going to Olympics.”