Special Guest
2012 Guest Speaker: Tom Ehman
The 34th America’s Cup is the eleventh straight AC campaign for Tom Ehman. A consummate veteran of international yachting, he has been at the forefront of many of the changes and innovations that have transformed top-level sailing into themodern, professional and more media-friendly sport that it is today. Notably, Tom spearheaded on-the-water umpiring that has been used in the America’s Cup since he instituted it for the 1992 Cup in San Diego.A former collegiate and North American sailing champion, and winner of the 1976Championship of Champions, at age 25 he became the youngest-ever Executive Director of the USA’s national sailing association – indeed, the youngest of any national governing body for an Olympic sport in America.
Since he started with the America’s Cup in 1980, Tom has served in many roles including rules advisor, team executive, event manager, and chairman of the Challenger Commission. He is the only person of long-standing involvement in the Cup who has worked only for American campaigns – New York YC, San Diego YC,St. Francis YC, and now Golden Gate YCFor the past three campaigns, Tom was Head of External Affairs for ORACLE Racing. He now serves as GGYC Vice Commodore and Managing Director of the GGYC America’s Cup Committee, and is Executive Director of America’s Cup Properties, Inc.
2011 Guest Speaker: Betsy Alison
Betsy has won World Championship and National Titles in numerous sailing disciplines including Women’s Match Racing, Yngling and Lightning classes, Adams Cup, Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship to name a few. She is a 5 time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, the only person male or female to have been honored that number of times., Elizabeth “Betsy” Alison is the Paralympic Coach of the US SAILING Team AlphaGraphics. Her primary focus is the development of national team athletes in the three Paralympic sailing events in preparation for the 2012 Games in Weymouth, England and beyond. Her Paralympic sailors brought home Gold (SKUD 18) and Bronze (2.4mR) in the most recent 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. She served as a coach for both the 2000 and 2004 Paralympic Team athletes which brought home another 3 medals in 4 disciplines for the USA. She was recently joined on “staff” by Morrow II, a CCI (Canine Companions for Independence) assistance dog, to help with the health and well being of team members at training camps and competitions.
She received her B.A. at Jackson College of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Betsy has served on the National Training Faculty for US SAILING since 1990, and is a Master Trainer for the development of coaches and instructors for that organization. She authored the current training manual for coaches in training for US SAILING, and routinely contributes to other publications including the International Association for Disabled Sailing’s (IFDS) most recent edition of their “Sailing Manual.” She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Sports Council.
Betsy works closely with Dr. Anne Allen of SailSportMed on many projects involving athletes with disabilities including safety studies, classification systems and accessibility issues. Along with Dr. Allen she co-authored a comprehensive sports medicine paper on “Sport Safety in Sailing” which was based on direct results of study done at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. It was presented to the International Paralympic Committee in March of 2005.
In November of 2005, she was honored by the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Committee with a diploma in the career category for her ongoing contributions to the sport of sailing and its participants. Betsy currently serves on the Executive of the US Olympic Sailing Committee, the Committee for Disabled Sailing and chairs the Coaches Council for IFDS.
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