Strong Start For North Shore Native Maggie Shea In Olympic Debut

WILMETTE, IL — Wilmette native Maggie Shea, who grew up sailing on Lake Michigan on her grandfather's boat, made her Olympic debut Tuesday in the waters off the coast of Enoshima, Japan.

Shea, 32, a member of the class of 2007 at New Trier High School, and her teammate Stephanie Roble, 32, a native of East Troy, Wisconsin, ended their first day of races at Tokyo 2020 in second overall position.

The team finished third in the first race, runner-up in the second and 14th in the third race of the day. Although a slight boat handling error on the final leg cost the team first place in the day's second race, both sailors were encouraged by the first day of competition, according to a release from U.S. Sailing.

“We kind of knew everyone was going to have those [unexpected] moments at some point today, so we didn’t get too frustrated,” Shea said. “We even laughed a little bit, and just moved on.”

Shea got her start in sailing on the lake aboard on the boats of her grandfather, John Nedau. Nedau, a Lake Michigan Sailing Hall of Fame member who died in 2016, holds the all-time record for number of Chicago-to-Mackinac races completed.

In 2011, at age 80, Nedau won the race for the first time in his 64th attempt, with Shea, his son Sam Nedau and his grandson Tyler Nedau crewing his seventh boat named "Windancer."

Roble and Shea took bronze at the 2019 World Championships, silver in the 2019 Pan American Games and are currently ranked No. 6 by World Sailing, the sport's international governing body. They won the U.S. Olympic trials in February 2020 and have been preparing for their chance to go for gold ever since.

“I think we did a good job of taking advantage of the extra year, just keeping the pedal down, really pushing hard and taking advantage of the few racing opportunities we had," Roble said. “We’re really grateful for the team behind our team to keep pushing us hard.”

Although their relationship on the water began as rivals in high school, Shea, a Connecticut College alum, and Roble, an Old Dominion University grad, have been racing together professionally since shortly after graduating from college, finishing in 4th in the 2012 Olympic trials.

Since 2017, they have been coached by four-time Olympian Giulia Conti, who won gold and bronze medals in the 2015 and 2016 world championships.

But in March 2020, two months after qualifying for the Olympics, the team suspended training due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"In May [2020], I bought a used car, packed up all my belongings and moved down to Miami to near Steph so we could train full-time when travel was really not a possibility. And so I would say COVID changed our schedule and the rhythm of things, for sure. It felt like the whole year was either full throttle forward or things came to a screeching halt," Shea told NBC.

"We were either quarantining for two weeks or we were excited to get back to practice and training super hard — no regattas for a few months and then back to back regattas," she added. "It just felt like it was on or off so we just had to manage our pace as a team and we learned about a lot about ourselves."

In October 2020, Shea suffered a torn tendon in her knee after crashing into a wave, which required stitches but no surgery, she told North Shore Weekend ahead of the Olympics, describing the months of rehab that followed as the longest period she had spent outside a boat in eight years.

An online fundraiser started last year to help cover the cost of the 12-month Olympic postponement had raised more than $39,000 from more than 116 donors as of the start of the Olympic Games.

There are nine more preliminary races before medals in the women's skiff will be decided. Three races are scheduled Wednesday in Sagami. The competition will move to Kamakura for three races on Saturday and Sunday before returning to Enoshina for the medal race, which is scheduled for Monday.

WATCH: July 27 Women's 49er FX Preliminary Races via NBC Sports »