JO ALEH has feasted on medals in recent years and is now hungry for further Olympic success.
New Zealand sailors Aleh and Polly Powrie won Olympic gold in the women’s 470 regatta at London 2012 and the team-mates are certainly no stranger to the podium as they defend their crown.
The Kiwi pair have combined in total to have won five World Championship medals in the women's 470 class, including a silver at the 2016 470 World Championships in February in Argentina.
They have only finished outside the top 10 twice and have 33 podiums featuring 19 wins.
Aleh, 30, who has Israeli parents and is part of a Progressive Jewish community in Auckland is ready for her third Olympic Games and she said: "Being strong together makes us so much more than we are apart. I think where one of us is weak the other is strong, and that just means we're stronger together. You have to have a lot of trust between the two of you and we do work so well together. Results have gone our way in recent and we want that to continue.”
‘Team Jolly’ take the No 1 world ranking into the Games. Since London they have finished first, second, fourth and second at the world championships to underline their favourites tag.
Having spent plenty of time on the tricky waters of Rio, where five different courses could be used, Aleh is ready for the conditions that could be thrown up.
She said: “We have the experience to get us through whatever happens. We aren’t satisfied with where we are. We want to keep improving and winning medals. You don’t get tired of that."
Yachting New Zealand's high performance director Jez Fanstone has high hopes for a repeat of four years ago and said: “We have seen in the last few years, they have only been off the podium twice, so what they are doing is working well."
