Martine Grael adds another gold medal to family’s Olympic record

RIO DE JANEIRO -- One of the most traditional families in Brazil sports has won another medal in the Olympics.

Martine Grael, daughter of five-time Olympic medalist Torben Grael, clinched the gold in the 49er FX women on Thursday. Grael, who competed alongside Kahena Kunze, guaranteed the title in the final moments of the final race, with New Zealand and Denmark winning silver and bronze, respectively.

The 25-year-old from Niteroi won a medal in her first Olympics, improving to eight the number of medals the Grael family has won. Torben, Matine’s father, won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals in his career between 1984 and 2004, while Lars, her uncle, won two bronze medals in 1988 and 1996.

“It’s a legacy,” Martine Grael said after leaving the podium. “I don’t even know. It’s an honor for me to carry the history of my family in sailing. With this gold medal now, it’s even better.”

Grael grew up sailing at the Guanabara bay, that separates Niteroi from Rio de Janeiro, and had her father watching her closely during the entire Olympic Games.

“My father was a source of information for me,” she said. “He has all the experience, and we made sure we learned everything he would teach us. He was following us with our coach, and he made us more relaxed. He knows the bay. Sometimes he didn’t even say anything. We were more relaxed only by having him around us.”

Even though Grael and Kunze were competing at home at the Guanabara bay, the win only came in the final moments of the race.

“When they said we won by two seconds, I couldn’t believe it,” Kunze said. “Wow, that was so close.

“We only saw the gold medal at the finish line,” Grael said. “‘Really? We won the gold?’ It was a tough, close race, and the top four finished really close to each other so someone would be out of the podium. It was tough, but everything went right for us.”

Grael and Kunze’s win will help Brazil achieve its biggest result ever in Olympic Games, and they hope that a gold medal will finally convince the government to clean the Guanabara bay for good.

“It didn’t affect us, but I heard that the garbage affected some friends of mine,” Kunze said. “I want to leave a legacy for the future and have the water cleaned because we will continue sailing in this bay. I hope we can see this water clean one day. It should have been done already, but I hope from the bottom of my heart that it’s done. Rio de Janeiro is wonderful and everybody is loving it. Imagine if the water was clean.

“Four years training here in this beautiful Guanabara bay, and it would be better if the water was actually clean,” Grael agreed. “It’s never too late. When you see something wrong, it’s hard not to think about fixing it.”