Paris 2024 Olympics: History chase for 49erFX sailing sisters Olivia Price, Evie Haseldine

“Sailing sisters” Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine are chasing special history in the waters off Marseille as part of an unusual campaign for success involving tough love and plenty of tears

The Australian pair are two of the first sailors on the water at the Olympics. Picture Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine race, train, eat and share rooms together, laugh a lot but also cry and these “sailing sisters” believe this will be key to their successful chase for history at the Olympics.

Price, the match-racing silver medallist from the 2012 Olympics, will be our first dual female medallist if she and Haseldine excel in the 49erFX class in Marseille, the port city in southern France hosting the sailing program.

Haseldine, 21 and at her first Olympics, would become the Australian sailing teams youngest gold medallist if the pair can pull off a perfect regatta at the Games.

They are lofty goals but something the pair believe they can achieve due to a special relationship forged by tough love and plenty of tough talking.

“I there is something very unique in our relationship - she as a silver medallist and my inexperience and my openness to learn. I’m a clean slate and we are very open and honest with each other,’’ said Haseldine, who watched Price win a silver medal in London as an eight-year-old schoolgirl already mad about sailing and Olympic dreaming.

Olivia Price and Evie Haseldine are competing in the 49erFX class in Marseille. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“We do most things together, pretty much every hour of the day we are together.

“We make breakfast together, dinner, we transfer quite literally our teamwork and synchronisation on the water to off the water as well.

“It feels like we are almost sisters and it works so well. It’s a rare relationship, we step on the boat and things happen together.”

Haseldine believes it’s both their camaraderie and ability to survive and then thrive after tough conversations which make them work as a team.

“We do have hard conversations. There have definitely been tears,” said Haseldine, whose father David sailed with Price’s father David for years at Drummoyne Sailing Club.

“Normally when one cries so does the other and sympathy.

“We know it’s because we want to better ourselves.

“There has to be tears and conversations to ensure we are ticking the boxes. We always make up and are friends again we don’t have moments of silence.

“We ask each other if we are mad at each other. We are very willing to confront those things.’’

Olivia Price, right, is also part of the Australian women’s America's ’s Cup challenge as is her London Olympic teammate Nina Curtis.

Price and Haseldine survived a close battle for selections with fellow Sydneysiders Laura Harding and Annie Wilmot who finished fifth at the last world championships while the Olympians produced a disappointing 29th

But a year earlier, Price and Haseldine gave a glimpse of their medal potential with a third place at the world championships.

The pair, coached by Spaniard Victor Paya Canal, were one of three Australian teams scheduled to race from the opening day of the Olympic regatta on Sunday with Jim Colley and Shaun Connor in the 49er skiff and Grae Morris in the iQFOiL windsurfer also early starters.

The 49erFX was introduced onto the Olympic program at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and is the same boat as the 49er but modified with a slightly smaller rig so lighter weight female crews can sail the high-performance boat at the same level as their male counterparts.

Originally published as Paris 2024 Olympics: History chase for 49erFX sailing sisters Olivia Price, Evie Haseldine