The sail is mightier than the pen for Poland’s Dominik Zycki, who is competing in Beijing for the first time while on holiday from his job as a yachting magazine writer. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, Zycki reported on the Games regatta for Poland’s Zagle magazine, his employers to this day. Four years on, he heads into the Beijing Olympics as a world champion and one of the favourites to win gold in the two-man Star class with team mate Mateusz Kusznierewicz.“To go to an Olympics as a journalist was a dream that I never expected,” the 34-year-old Zycki said. “Now, to compete in the Olympics is another dream come true.”Ironically it was Kusznierewicz who had stopped Zycki from fulfilling his Olympic dream till now, pipping him in qualifying in 1996 and 2000.Skipping Athens He did not try to qualify for Athens, concentrating instead on his writing and his studies as a mechanical engineer at the Warsaw University of Technology. Zycki had given up on his dream of competing in the Olympics until approached by Kusznierewicz, who had always intended to move to the Star boat after Athens.Even then, Zycki thought long and hard before committing himself. “I did not say yes straight away,” he explained. “I had to think about it because it would affect my life, and also my family, a lot. But I said yes.”Earlier this year, they won the world title in Miami to become leading contenders for gold in China.Zycki’s boss at Zagle magazine, editor Waldemar Heflich who is here in Qingdao to commentate for Polish television, said his magazine’s temporary loss was the Polish team’s gain. “After a gold medal at this regatta I hope he comes back to us,” Heflich joked. “He is a good writer and a special person with a good heart.”Asked if he was a better sailor or writer, Zycki said: “I really don’t know. I’m not perfect in either!”
