Darien Olympian Rob Crane Goes for the Gold This Week [UPDATE]

Update, 8:16 p.m.:

On Sunday, Rob Crane did a practice run in his boat, preparing for Monday's first two races.

On his blog he wrote a new post with more about Friday's opening ceremony (the athletes don't get to see much of it), the police escort through London, stopping traffic along the way to get his team to the stadium, and a bit about his preparation. Here's an exerpt:

"After it was over it was back to bed at 2 AM then up at 6AM for a bus back to Weymouth [where the Olympic sailing races are held]. Today I sailed the practice race and went over everything left to do. Tomorrow I will sail in the first two races."

He linked to this page on his website, which has helpful links for following his events.

Here's a BBC weather forecast page for Weymouth. Monday (which began there at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, since the United Kingdom is five hours ahead) is supposed to be the warmest and sunniest day of the week. Crane has a weather link on his helpful links page with detailed wind information.

Here's a Celsius-to-Fahrenheit table to help with reading British weather forecasts for the week (for the entire week, the BBC is now predicting, temperatures should range between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius, which would be 57 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit):

Original article, 6:00 a.m., Sunday:

Darien's contribution to the 2012 Olympics, 26-year-old Rob Crane, is now readying himself for his first Olympic sailing competition on Monday.

On Friday, Crane and the rest of the 16-member U.S. Olympic sailing team joined the opening day ceremony in London, Sail World reported.

Members of the sailing team compete in various races with one-, two- and three-person crews. Crane is the one member on the team competing on the one-person Laser boat races, which continue most days through this week, as the Darien Times reports.

Weeks ago, Crane practiced in the waters off Weymouth, England, to get more familiar with the environment. After returning to the U.S., he set off for England again two weeks ago. He'll be representing the United States in a field of racers from 47 other nations.

Follow him online

Crane has his own website, with a blog and photo album updated regularly.

"The first two days here were a whirlwind of Olympic experiences," Crane wrote in a Thursday blog post. "Team processing, athlete village in London, Athlete Village in Weymouth,  get the Olympic boat and so forth and so on. Then I started practicing and everything seemed completely normal."

If you want to see an Olympian's-eye view of the opening ceremony, go to the photo album page and click on "slide show."

His pictures show the Americans behind the team from the United Arab Emirates, who showed up in flowing Arab robes. In one caption, he writes that the team had a full police escort through the streets of London before walking into the Olympic stadium.

What was "normal," he wrote, was practicing with his 14-foot Laser at Weymouth, where he's spent a total of four months' sailing over the past few years, readying for the racing this week.

The Hartford Courant has a schedule of Crane's sailing competitions, along with those of other Olympians from Connecticut.

Background, back home

Back home, the DCA Thrift Shop has decorated its shop window in honor of Crane and his Olympic run.

Crane was "born into a family that's passionate about sailing," Sail World reports. A long-time member of the , his parents and grandfather each won Pan Am Games medals, according to NBC Connecticut.

The Olympian began sailing at age seven and for a while used the Laser's sister craft, a Laser Radial, which has the same length but a smaller sail, the Darien Times reported.

Born in Stamford and raised in Darien, Crane went to Holderness, a boarding school in New Hampshire, according to his website.

"Unlike many of the serious youth sailors that compete today, I pursued other athletic endeavors during the school year. I played varsity soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse and turned to sailing once the summer months arrived."

He then went on to Hobart College in upstate New York, where he practiced sailing on Lake Geneva. His coach there, Scott Ikle, told the Darien News that Rob's discipline and work ethic helped him continually improve as a sailor. Crane has been sailing full time since his 2009 graduation.

The U.S. Olympics Sailing Team has its own Youtube video channel, with a video featuring Crane. The channel also features an interview with Crane from April 25.

You can help out

One page of Crane's website is for donations, where he points out:

"In the U.S., unlike other nations, the sailors are almost entirely self funded. Our government provides no financial support. [...] Therefore, I am humbly soliciting your support."

The Web page has full details on how you can contribute with airline miles, sailing gear and tax-deductable gifts of money.

Editor's note: Rob Crane is also on Facebook and Twitter.