Hans Henken back aboard Team USA catamaran 14 months after he was injured in a crash

Updated Nov. 18, 2024 5:46 p.m. ET

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Hans Henken’s sailing career is back at full throttle not quite 14 months after he was knocked unconscious and severely injured when the high-speed catamaran he was controlling in a SailGP race crashed off its foils and nosedived into the Mediterranean waves.

The Olympic medalist is back as flight controller for the United States SailGP Team, which announced its lineup Monday for Season 5 of the global league. The opening regatta is Saturday and Sunday in Dubai.

Henken has come full circle. On Sept. 23, 2023, he suffered two broken ribs, a broken sternum, a torn rotator cuff and a concussion when he misjudged the ride height control of Team USA’s 50-foot catamaran during a maneuver around a mark in a regatta in Taranto, Italy.

The injuries didn’t keep him off the water for long. Some 3 ½ weeks later, Henken, a Stanford-educated rocket scientist, and skipper Ian Barrows won the gold medal in the 49er class at the Pan Am Games.

The duo then won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, a breakthrough for a once-dominant sailing squad that had claimed just one medal total in the previous three Summer Games.

Now he’s back in SailGP, which, he says, “has some of the best sailors in the world, the coolest boats, the fastest boats,” which are known as F50s and can hit highway speeds.

“It’s no mystery to find me wanting to be around these boats,” Henken, 32, said in a recent phone interview. “They’re also an engineering marvel. And having studied aerospace engineering at Stanford, every aspect of the boat is really, really cool — sailing it, the engineering behind it, the culture around it. It’s just an awesome, awesome league.”

Team USA was sold to a new ownership group two months after Henken was hurt. The Americans are looking to bounce back from an eighth-place finish in the 10-boat fleet, which is up to 11 for the opener and will increase to 12 by the second regatta.

Henken was injured when the American F50 nosedived and buried its leeward hull into the Mediterranean waves at about 40 mph, rose up into the air and came to rest. Henken, the flight controller, said he misjudged the boat’s ride height control during a maneuver after rounding a mark.

Then-skipper Jimmy Spithill didn’t immediately see Henken and radioed in a man overboard call. A few seconds later, the crew found Henken unconscious and severely injured from the force of the water that slammed him into the back of his cockpit. Spithill called for a medic boat to get Henken ashore and to a hospital.

“These boats require a lot of precision in all movements, in all areas,” Henken said. “If one thing is not quite lined up, a lot can wrong quickly. That’s part of this sport. It’s an extreme sport and I think that goes to show that everyone is pushing incredibly hard and that’s just part of racing these boats.”

He was determined to continue his Olympic campaign and pushed through the pain during his physical therapy sessions.

He said he wasn’t physically ready for the Pan Am Games, “but mentally I wanted to be there, I wanted to campaign. It wasn’t a part of our trials system but the type of racing was going to be really important toward preparing for our U.S. Olympic Trials in Miami in January.”

Henken has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

“When I was 5 years old, my big dream was to be an astronaut. My next big dream was to go to the Olympics and win a medal. So, I’ve done one of those things,” he said.

He interviewed with SpaceX but then got a call from Barrow to start campaigning for the Olympics, so he pulled his application.

It’s still a goal to work as an aerospace engineer, “but while I’m capable and while I have the skill set to be able to sail these boats, I’m taking any opportunity to sail really, really cool flying boats, I’m not going to turn that down,” he said.

Henken said getting back aboard an F50 during a training camp in Bermuda was “kind of like finding an old friend.”

Team USA CEO and co-owner Mike Buckley was on the boat that first day and “gave a little fist bump and said, ‘Have a good day,’ and that was that. You know, I think all athletes are sort of wired to get back up and give it another try.”

The American catamaran now features the Liberty Marine colorway to honor the Statue of Liberty. An image of the statue's head is on the wingsail.

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Bernie Wilson has covered sailing for The Associated Press since 1991.

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