It was September 2024 and our girls’ Olympic hope Dominika Braunova returned to the competition field after a long recovery to shuffle the cards. She will tell you more about what happened here.

“After a long recovery, I proudly returned to the water with even greater ambitions than before. There were certain factors in my life that held me back from giving 120% to racing. However, I am currently trying to reduce these factors to a minimum. My result is proof and believe me, I’m just getting started.

I won’t get ahead of myself. Let’s go back to September 26, 2024, when my first training session after the break started. We all know that one learns fastest and most effectively in practice, so I jumped right into the race that day. Just a warm-up and warm-down at the Italian Championships. The goal was to get back on track, which I think I did. Then some rest and on October 1, 2024 my second race, the Kitefoil World Series, was starting. I missed the podium by a whisker at this race, because of the new medal series system being tested for the 2028 Olympics. What’s different is that in the past it was automatic that the first top 10 riders went into the medal series, but in this one, only the first top 9 go in. The last available spot has to be taken in the so-called “golden ticket race”. This allows all drivers from 10th place and above one last chance to qualify. Whoever wins goes in. Whoever was 25th in the standings after winning the golden ticket race moves into the top 10.

In my case, the opposite situation occurred. I held my 10th position for the time of the open races, which I should have confirmed by winning the golden ticket race, but it didn’t happen. My 10th place went to someone else and I ended up 11th in the race. So there is speculation among the racers about the positives and negatives of this new system for us. Of course, after my botched golden ticker race I saw the negatives rather than the positives, but in hindsight I also see it as a huge opportunity for those who have had more bad luck in races than others, yet their performance is incompatible with the position they are in. We’ll know which system will apply to us and the iq foils in the next few months.

And now I’m getting to the highlight of the night…the European Under 21 Championship…what a blast guys. So firstly, the girls have improved tremendously, which is obvious to everyone, but secondly there are new faces from the UK and Greece, which is saying something with our numbers. So the race field was literally brimming with close fights. From the men’s ranks there was the well-known Vojtech Koska.

We gave everything to our races. Vojta was in the top 5 during the open races, I was balancing between 10th and 13th position. My key moment that moved me up in the results was the last day. I stuck to the motto “No risk, no gain” and went into the heats head first. I didn’t have much else to do. It was clear that if I stuck to it like a sheep in the herd, I would always stay behind the majority of the herd. So I mustered up all my courage and on the very first race of the last day, I sent it with two other PORT racers ahead of the entire fleet. To put it kindly, we crossed the path of the other 14 girls who crossed the start line, while we tended to ride alongside. At this start, I rounded the first top buoy in 6th position, instead of my normal 10-11th position. The remaining 3 races on the last day could no longer accomplish this, due to a change in wind direction. I didn’t allow it and instead of crossing the racers ahead, I just passed them and headed in the same direction. In this case I was the only one.

Overall it was very worthwhile and I take my first medal from the Formula Kite category.

I am grateful for all the support I have received from everyone. Thank you to Radek Dolejš, M.D., who was my captain on the voyage to a healthy knee. Of course to my family and also to the Czech Sailing Federation for their support.

Stay tuned for next season.

Ciao bella!