When ‘Thorpey’, a support member of the Australian Olympic Sailing Team, pushed Rhiannan Brown and Brin Liddell off the dock in Marseille at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Mark Thorpe smiled and said:  

“You’re now officially an Olympian.” 

They hadn’t even meant to be there. 

Brown and Liddell – Nacra 17 sailing partners and New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holders – had always been in it for the long haul, setting their sights on Los Angeles (LA) 2028. But after a string of strong results since their debut in 2019, they found themselves in the waves of the Paris Olympic Regatta. 

NSWIS sailors Rhiannan Brown and Brin Liddell

“We didn’t really have any expectations…going into it,” Brown said. “We knew it was going to be an experience Games. We described the Olympics as a ‘circus’ [in the way that] you had to manage all the emotions and [the chaos].” 

Now, just months into the 2028 Olympic cycle, Brown and Liddell are already finding their rhythm. They kicked off their season with fifth place finishes at the Princesa Sofia Regatta in Spain, and French Olympic Week. 

“It was a nice check-up to see how [we were going] compared to everyone else,” Brown said. “The two fifth places were a really nice result for us to go, ‘We’re working on the right things.’ We were still chipping away even while racing.” 

Growing up on the sandy peninsula of Belmont in Lake Macquarie with three brothers, the 22-year-old found herself drawn to the water – and the boats her brothers were sailing.  

“They were doing Learn to Sail while I was just playing in the park,” she laughed. “Then one day, Mum turned around, and I was out on a boat when I wasn’t meant to be.” 

She called her first boat Rippa, sang to it to make it go faster, and quickly fell in love with the sport’s mix of speed, strategy, and competition. 

“I did a lot of sports as a kid,” Brown explained. “But sailing just had a tactical element that a lot of the other sports didn’t have. You got to use your strengths and weaknesses against another person a lot more, which I liked.” 

Brown and Liddell have been friends since they were eight, racing as rivals before teaming up as teenagers. “We just wanted to sail together for a little bit to see if it worked,” she said. “And we’ve been sailing together for six or seven years now.”  

Their opposites in many ways – and that’s what makes them work. 

“Brin is a lot more of a strategist and good at pushing the boat to the extreme,” Brown said. “He doesn’t really have much of a fear factor, [while] I’m scanning and anticipating things that are going to go wrong before they can happen. He likes to push as hard as possible [until it falls], but I don’t like to let it fall.” 

“We help each other out in our weaknesses. When he’s fatigued, I’m good at helping him out. And when I’m stressed, he’s able to pull me out of my own head. He is almost like another sibling.” 

One of Brown’s most powerful sailing memories didn’t come from a victory, but from pure exhaustion.  

“It was our first big overseas regatta [Princesa Sofia 2023] where we made gold fleet – which we’d never done before”, she recalled.  

“It was a really tough regatta, when we went over the finish line I just wanted to cry. But then I saw the media boat and knew they were going to be taking photos, [so I held it together].” 

One of those shots ended up as her dad’s phone screensaver. “It’s his favourite photo. He thinks [Brin and I] look like a good team, but he didn’t know that I was trying so hard not to cry.”  

Looking back, Brown sees more than fatigue and is reminded of how far she’s come. 

“I don’t want to feel that exhausted ever again!’ she exclaimed. “But now, I get to look back and see the progress we made over the years [and think] ‘Now I can bang out two regattas’ back-to-back and I’m not absolutely smashed!’”  

Despite finishing 13th in Paris, Brown said the biggest take away was “managing expectations”.  

“If you put too many expectations on one [moment] of your life, you’re not going to be able to pick yourself up and try again,” she said. “We never planned to go. Our selection was quite late so there was a lot of [indecision]. We only had a specific amount of time to practice in Marseille, so it was just go, go, go until it was over.” 

“We didn’t want to put too much pressure on [ourselves]. We just went in, had the best team, and we actually enjoyed that regatta the most out of any regattas we had ever done. We learned so much.” 

In many ways, Brown’s story is one of quiet defiance. She remembers a national induction in 2022, where sailors were asked to draw a line to the Olympics they were aiming for – Paris, LA, or Brisbane 2032. 

“Most people picked LA. Some picked Paris, and I remember those people being told, ‘No way you should be campaigning for that. That’s super unrealistic.’” 

A year later, she was on the start line in Marseille. 

“You shouldn’t tell people ‘No’ when you never know what’s going to happen,” Brown said. 

While Nacra is a mixed-gender class, sailing remains a male-dominated sport – and Brown, who sails in the physically demanding crew position (generating the boat’s power and controlling stability), still faces unnecessary assumptions. 

“I hate it when people ask, ‘Isn’t your role harder because you’re a girl?’” she explained. “I think that I can do just as much as any guy could in my position. And I do race other boats where the male is the crew, and we beat them. I like a challenge.” 

“I just want to inspire that one girl learning to sail.” 

Brown and Liddell are now gearing up for the European Championships in Greece, followed by Kiel Week in Germany – the same regatta where they had their first international race nearly four years ago. 

The goal though, remains the same. 

“Just chipping away,” Brown said, “[Keep] working on the right things and creating a good team environment to push each other to get better and not hide things so we can all learn off each other.” 

Because if sailing has taught her anything, it’s that the moment you’re working for might arrive when you least expect it – and it could be the one that changes everything. 

Story: Rachel Tingey

Photos: Sailing Energy

Tags Brin LiddellRhiannan Brown

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