by Lucas Masiello ’24
ENOSHIMA, JPN- Skippering in A-Fleet at interconference women’s regattas as a freshman for the Rhode Island Sailing Team, Okyanus Arikan ’26 is no stranger to being the youngest in a fleet. At 16 years old, Arikan is the youngest sailor to ever compete in an Olympic Games. Furthermore, Arikan is the first female athlete to represent her home country of Turkey in the 470 fleet.
Achieving greatness in the sport of sailing has been a theme throughout Arikan’s life: at 15 years old, she placed third in the Optimist World Championship in Antigua. After graduating from the Optimist class, Arikan skipped the 420 and immediately began her Olympic campaign with her skipper, Beste Kaynacki.
After competing in the 2020 Sailing World Cup in Miami, COVID lockdowns put Arikan’s Olympic dreams on hold. With special permission from the Turkish government, Arikan was able to participate in single-boat training at her home club in Izmir, Turkey. Eventually, Arikan was able to live abroad to attend training camps and regattas in Portugal and Spain, qualifying herself and her country for the 2021 Games at the 2021 470 World Championship.
However, at a training camp in Spain, Arikan’s campaign suffered a major setback: a month and a half before the Games, Arikan suffered an ankle injury that had her sidelined until the start of the regatta. Without sailing once while other teams were living and training at the Olympic venue, Arikan and team persevered and made it to the start line in Enoshima.
Despite major setbacks from COVID and injury, however, competing in the Games proved to be an incredible experience for Arikan. “Sailing in the Olympics was very different from a normal 470 regatta. Even though it was the same fleet, sailing with TV cameras, living in the Olympic village, and only having a flag on our sail rather than a sail number made for an incredible experience.” Arikan performed, beating sailing powerhouses such as Argentina and China at the regatta.
After the Olympics, Arikan switched boats and began focusing on the ILCA 6 class; hoping to represent her country again at the 2028 Games. In 2022, before beginning college sailing at URI, Arikan represented her country at the World Sailing Youth World Championships in the ILCA 6, finishing 11/56. Arikan has become an integral part of both the Rhode Island and Turkish sailing teams and clearly has just begun her legacy of greatness in the sport of yachting.