Q1: So how does it feel to know that you’re going to the Olympics?
Kevin Hall: It feels like a lot of paperwork. I haven’t had too many days that I would call ‘off’ yet.

Q2: What was it like when you crossed the finish line and knew you had qualified for the Olympics?
Kevin Hall: It was possibly a little anti-climatic, I sat there with my coach and my wife was in the boat, and they said congratulations and we had a bottle of champagne. It was a really nice day out with the wind coming up, so I actually decided to sail in the last race for fun to just be out there. That was a good feeling because I didn’t have to race and I’d already won. Maybe then I had a little time to reflect, but not much.

Q3: Did you think going into the regatta that you had a huge opportunity on the line or is it  that every time you go in the boat you’re setting out to have fun?
Kevin Hall: A little bit of each. I went into the regatta feeling prepared, which takes a lot of the pressure off. I derive a lot of confidence from feeling like I’ve done all the training I want to do, and the first few races went well, so after that I actually did manage to enjoy the event quite a lot and enjoy racing and the challenges. I made some big mistakes and had chances to try to make some comebacks, most of which I pulled off.

Q4: Do you think your prior Olympic Trials experience gave you an advantage over the rest of the field?
Kevin Hall: Yeah, absolutely. With my teammate Morgan – last time, we had a really good shot at winning, and it came down to the second to last day and another team had pulled ahead. That was certainly very valuable.

Q5: Now that you’ve qualified, do you feel that those past Olympics you just missed out on were in the back of your mind?
Kevin Hall: I was pretty upset after the ’96 Trials, partly because I felt like I sailed a very poor event, and I didn’t sail anywhere near my potential. I wasn’t all there mentally and I didn’t feel great physically. That was disappointing.

Q6: Do you think they’ve helped you get where you are?
Kevin Hall: 2000 was pretty different because Morgan and I had really enjoyed the training leading up to it and we had successes at World Championships and we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, and that was out on the table when we got started. We came out of the trials feeling actually very good about the event we sailed and how we performed and everything we did leading up to it, we had a good time the whole time. It just happened that another team sailed even better.

Q7: What characteristics set you apart from the other sailors?
Kevin Hall: Experience and confidence would probably be one part, I have an ability to focus and concentrate for long periods of time and you have some long days out there. The other thing would just be training choices, in choosing to focus on downwind speed at the expense of working on my equipment and my upwind speed. I put my extra into downwind sailing and I just had the guts to stick with that program, and by the end it really ended up paying off big time.

Q8: Are you going to continue that training program even in the current-less Mediterranean?
Kevin Hall: I’m going to continue to pursue downwind speed, but not at the expense of the other aspects of the program. I’m going to be really fortunate to have a coach with me just about the whole time who’s very good with technical matters. So we’re going to focus on and work really hard on the equipment. Which is something I enjoy, I just haven’t put the energy in yet. It means trying different masts and recutting the sails three nights in a row to get it down just right.

Q9: Do you want to become a full-time coach and help other sailors eventually?
Kevin Hall: I intend to continue coaching for as long as I can watch a sailboat sail. I just love it. Especially if I’m coaching late teens or youth sailing, it’s a really exciting time because it’s when sailors start really developing their own styles and their strengths and weaknesses emerge.

Q10: Do you plan to keep sailing after the Olympics:
Kevin Hall: A great thing about the sport of sailing is that hopefully I can keep doing it for a long time. My body will slowly be less useful, but my mind and experience will be more, so it will balance out.