U.S. 470 SAILORS STU MCNAY, DAVE HUGHES ADDED TO OLYMPIC TEAM FOR TOKYO

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2021 will mark the fourth for McNay and the second for Hughes. They partnered to finish fourth at the 2016 Olympic Games, marking the second best finish among U.S. sailors in Rio.

McNay, 38, made his Olympic debut at the Beijing Games in 2008, when he and partner Graham Biehl edged Hughes and partner Michael Anderson-Mitterling for the U.S. spot. A native of Providence, Rhode Island, McNay finished 13th in Beijing and 14th four years later in London, sailing again with Biehl.

Following the London Games, McNay partnered with Hughes, who had spent the previous quad coaching, and the two quickly made a formidable team, culminating with their near-podium finish in Rio. Hughes, 42, was born in Ithica, New York, and lives in Miami.

“After the 2012 Games, we both realized that we still had a great deal of competitive fire left in our tanks,” Hughes told TeamUSA.org prior to the Rio Games. “Our Olympic journeys were not meant to be over.”

McNay and Hughes also earned Team USA’s 2021 Olympic quota spot in the men’s 470 (two-person dinghy) when they finished seventh at the 2018 World Sailing Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.

Since the two-person dinghy became an Olympic event in 1988, the U.S. has won four medals, most recently a gold-medal performance from Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham in 2004.

McNay and Hughes join eight U.S. athletes who had already qualified for Tokyo in six boats. They are:

Mixed Nacra 17: Riley Gibbs & Anna Weis
Women’s 49erFC: Stephanie Roble & Maggie Shea
Men’s Laser: Charlie Buckingham
Women’s Laser Radial: Paige Railey 
Women’s RS:X: Farrah Hall 
Men’s RS:X: Pedro Pascual
The sailing competitions in Tokyo will be held in Enoshima, which is approximately 35 miles south of Tokyo’s main Olympic park and where the 1964 Olympic sailing events were contested.

Source: https://www.teamusa.org/