{"id":19146,"date":"2016-04-24T16:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T16:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/?p=19146"},"modified":"2021-10-28T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:52:11","slug":"us-sailors-powered-expedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/us-sailors-powered-expedia\/","title":{"rendered":"US sailors powered by Expedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expedians will be cheering for all of the U.S. Olympians at this summer\u2019s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but we\u2019re reserving some extra-special cheers for Paris Henken and Helena Scutt<\/a>. In addition to being all-around great gals, the two comprise are part of the\u00a0US Sailing Team Sperry, and will represent our country in the women\u2019s 49er FX, one of the fastest races on the water. Helena, 23, also is what we here in Bellevue, Washington, consider to be a local girl\u2014she\u2019s from Seattle. (Paris, 20, is from San Clemente, California, which isn\u2019t that far away either.) We were jazzed to hear that the young women book all of their travel\u2014by themselves, mind you\u2014on Expedia. So I recently caught up with them on Skype to talk about their booking strategies, their training routines, and how they\u2019ll approach the big event this summer in Brazil.<\/em><\/p>\n

Matt Villano (MV)<\/strong>: From where in the world are you two talking to me\u00a0right now?<\/p>\n

Helena Scutt (HS)<\/strong>: We\u2019re in Mallorca, off the coast of Barcelona. We\u2019re training here. Most places in Europe are too cold to sail right now but here it\u2019s warm.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: Mallorca this month, Brazil this summer. You guys live in the U.S. Sounds like a ton of travel.<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: Yeah, travel is a really cool part of this sport. Personally I always have traveled a lot. I was born in England. My whole family is British. We moved to Seattle when I was 2, but I\u2019ve been back to England a lot. When I was a kid for sailing I went to France and Spain and the Bahamas and Italy. This whole Olympic campaign\u2014that\u2019s what we call it when you\u2019re trying to go to the Olympics\u2014it\u2019s taken travel to the next level. I really like seeing new places and different cultures. The food is amazing too.<\/p>\n

Paris Henken (PH)<\/strong>: The food! I can\u2019t say my favorite, but I know most of the time when we go out, we try to order something specific to the region. Something that\u2019s local.<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: In Argentina, we tried chicken gizzards. I wouldn\u2019t say they were my favorites, but we tried them. In Rio they have those barbecue restaurants where they keep bringing food, the churrascos. I\u2019m looking forward to that.<\/p>\n

[viewfinder-image-small-horizontal]<\/strong><\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: When you visit these new places, do you ever have time to sightsee?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: We do, but it\u2019s nothing like going on vacation in terms of being able to do everything you like to do. We\u2019re usually able to fit in a couple of days during the training, and another day or two of the end. When we\u2019re exploring, those are some of my best memories, since after a while the training blends together. You have a lot of hours in the water and a lot of hours in the gym. Those little trips going to see a castle or hiking up a mountain nearby really stick in your mind.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: Training sounds intense. What\u2019s it like?<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: Training usually [comprises]\u00a0waking up and going to the gym in the morning. We have a trainer who will give us a schedule of exercises to do at the gym. We come back and eat breakfast. Each day we sit down with coach and talk about something we want to focus on for the day. Some days it\u2019s boat speed. Other days it\u2019s boat handling. We usually train for two or three hours a day. Sometimes we\u2019ll do it for four hours, but that\u2019s a long day. We come back home. Usually make dinner. Then our coach will sit down with us show us the video he took of us throughout the day, critique things we did wrong, tell us what we did well and share with us what we need to do to improve.<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: We\u2019ve trained a ton this year; there are no such things as weekends when you\u2019re training for the Olympics. In 2015, we trained for 114 days and we raced for 65 days. In total we were on the water for 179 days. That\u2019s excluding all the travel.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: What\u2019s the biggest challenge of managing the training and the travel and life?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: Logistics is a big one. We just spent five days traveling from the United States to the UK to get our car and our boats. We couldn\u2019t rent a car because we\u2019re so young. Also, no cars let you put boats on the roof, so we had to buy a car. Last year we had events on three continents \u2013 North America, South America, and Europe. Logistics of all the shipping is another dimension. We do all the planning, and we most recently split a container to get the boats home.<\/p>\n

MV: <\/strong>How do you try to make it easier on yourselves?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: Step no. 1 is booking with Expedia. One time after trials we needed to buy ticket back home from Miami. I booked it to Seattle. Within 24 hours I realized that I needed to go to Paris\u2019 house, in San Diego. I was able to cancel the original flight for free. Expedia made it easy. I also really like the mobile app for booking hotels. The other day, we arrived in Spain on the ferry from the UK. We arrived in Bilbao and we had to go and get our trailer in a city an hour away. On the way back, we booked our hotel in Bilbao for the night with the Expedia app on my phone. It was really convenient. And it was nice to know we didn\u2019t have to worry.<\/p>\n

[viewfinder-image-landscape]<\/strong><\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: In addition to our app, what else do you consider to be your must-have travel items?<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: We do try not to pack too big. It\u2019s hard. Half our suitcases are filled with sailing equipment. We hit the max of weight for each bag. If it\u2019s over 50 pounds, we\u2019ll start pulling out all of our blocks and screws.<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: TSA pulled me aside on the way here. One of my carry-on bags was just ropes. He pulled out all the ropes. He asked me what all of it is for.<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: Sometimes we travel with sails. We have these big tubes for them. We haven\u2019t had any trouble with them yet but sometimes we need to talk to customer service managers to make sure they let us fly with them.<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: I always travel with earplugs and an eyeshade and headphones. Mine aren\u2019t marked as noise canceling but they do a pretty good job at that, even if you just turn them on and don\u2019t play any music. You don\u2019t look very cool but who cares.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: What are your rituals when you get to a new city?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: We don\u2019t usually do stuff right when we arrive because we\u2019re focused to get the boat ready and hit ground running as soon as our coach arrives. Within a few days, we usually hear from other sailors where the cool places are to go.<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: Sometimes we\u2019ll get out on the water right away, too, just to get a sense of currents and wind. We actually will have sailed in Rio three times before the Olympics. It\u2019s a very interesting place to sail.<\/p>\n

MJV<\/strong>: Will you have family members joining you at this year\u2019s Olympics?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: My parents and my grandmother and two of my aunts and uncles and my sister are coming down. One of my aunts is going to be second in command for the sound and audio systems for the opening and closing ceremonies. She\u2019s been in the industry for a long time. That\u2019ll be really cool. We\u2019re all really excited. We\u2019ll be focused and not interacting with them much while we\u2019re racing in order to keep it like other events as much as possible. Afterward we\u2019ll get to spend more time with them.<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: The team is like family, too. Before the Olympics they\u2019ll have a house and we\u2019ll go over there every dinner and their cook will cook for us. For the games we\u2019ll move in to the athlete village.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: Is there anything in particular you hope to do while you\u2019re in Brazil?<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: We made it up Sugarloaf last time but we still haven\u2019t been to Christ the Redeemer, so I really want to do that. It\u2019s a classic thing. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have time for it but there\u2019s an island off the coast called Isla Granda. That\u2019d be fun if we have time.<\/p>\n

MV<\/strong>: And because we know you\u2019re going to win it, how will you celebrate a gold medal?<\/p>\n

HS<\/strong>: With my family. They weren\u2019t at any Olympic selection events but they were at the Pan-American Games, where we got bronze. That was really special for me.<\/p>\n

PH<\/strong>: Well the first thing I\u2019m going to do is celebrate with my family, too. Helena and I are pretty close, and our families are pretty close as well. I imagine we\u2019ll all be together. But after that, I\u2019m going to go out Samba dancing.<\/p>\n

Follow Helena and Paris on Twitter here<\/a>. Special thanks to Paris, Helena, and the US Sailing Team Sperry for the photographs that accompany this blog post.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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