Sail champion Wearn plots contemporary course for LA Olympics | USAEMALL.com

With two gold medals in his keeping, Matt Wearn could easily sail off into the sunset as one of Australia’s greatest Olympians on the water.

Already the first ever back-to-back Olympic champion in the dinghy (ILCA 7) class, the 30-year-old West Australian has instead decided to chase a third successive title at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

Wearn hasn’t competed since winning gold in the waters off Marseille more than a year ago, when he also led the Australian team as the Paris Games closing ceremony joint-flag-bearer.

After his Tokyo triumph his career was threatened by long COVID before he fought his way back to the top of the Olympic podium. Back-to-back campaigns, however, left him “cooked”.

“I never really had more than a month or two out of the boat for near on 10 years and I think that just sort of caught up with me,” Wearn told AAP.

“By the time I got to Paris, I was just looking forward to it all being over really in some way that I could stop so that’s obviously not a nice place to be.

“It took the fun and excitement out of going sailing and it became, I guess, almost too much like a job and doing it for the sake of doing it, rather than for the love of it.”

The two-time world champion, through professional sailing on big boats and maxis as well as foiling, rediscovered that love and motivation to again chase Olympic glory.

“I started to appreciate how enjoyable the Olympic campaign life is and sort of pushing myself, from that sense,” said Wearn, who trains in Europe with his Belgian sailor wife Emma.

“The drive and the motivation was just still there and I wasn’t quite ready to sort of hang it up just yet.

“In reflection over the last 12 months, it almost seemed a bit, not right, in a way to leave at the top.

“If I’m still racing, winning and competing, than why would I not give myself the chance to keep doing that and keep writing history.”

Australia have claimed four consecutive Olympic men’s dinghy titles, with Wearn’s two medals following Tom Burton in Rio 2016 and Tom Slingsby’s victory at London 2012.

Wearne edged out Olympic champion Burton in qualifying to win the Tokyo berth and he expected similarly tough competition to even get the chance to compete in LA.

He will kick off his return with domestic competitions including Sail Melbourne next month and the national championships in Hobart early next year before returning to Europe.

Wearn is expecting some stiff competition from the local brigade.

“There was a little bit of a gap with the last campaign with a new generation coming through, so there wasn’t that much competition domestically,” he said.

“But this time around, there’s a couple of guys around who have really stepped up over the last 12 months and are proving that they’re worthy of medalling at big events.

“We had Zac Littlewood, who got a bronze at the world championships this year so by no means am I thinking it’s going to be an easy track to LA.”