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Sail away

McKee brothers strike 49er bronze

American duo Jonathan (left) and Charlie McKee celebrate after winning the bronze medal Monday. AP

SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee's decision to try the Olympics at least once more paid off Monday as they won the bronze medal in the 49er class.

The Seattle residents scored a clutch victory in the 16th and final fleet race.

The McKees, both in their late 30s, had already won Olympic medals separately and were considering retirement.

"This boat came along and it just re-energized us," Charlie McKee said. "It was like, 'Hey, this is an opportunity for us to sail together again,' and we were having a good time and doing pretty well."

Jonathan McKee, 40, won the Flying Dutchman gold medal in 1984 and Charlie, 38, took the 470 bronze in 1988.

"It's a great feeling for us, at what would have to be the end of our Olympic careers, to be able to top it off here by winning the medals as brothers," said Charlie McKee, who started sailing with Jonathan some 25 years ago on Seattle's Lake Washington. "It's pretty special."

Although the McKees will sail for the America's Cup challenge mounted by telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw in 2002-03 in New Zealand, sailing officials aren't quite convinced that they're done with the 49er class.

"We sort of had this vision of the McKees walking down to the 49er dock with a walking stick and competing in about 2020 at some other end of the earth," said Glenn Bourke, the Olympic sailing competition manager.

If they don't come back, they'll always remember the moment when they shared the medal and high-fives on Sydney Harbor.

They needed a great finish on a cold, gray, blustery afternoon to win a medal, and they got it by winning the final race by a whopping 1 minute, 26 seconds.

The brothers, normally reserved after victories earlier in the regatta, hugged and slapped hands.

"It's pretty exciting," said Jonathan McKee, the skipper. "We've sailed together on and off for 25 years and we've never had an opportunity to go to the Olympics (together), and here we are. It's definitely something special to do it together."

Also Monday, 470 skipper Paul Foerster of Rockwall, Texas, rebounded from a 13th-place finish in the ninth fleet race to win the 10th race. He is in second place overall with one race to go.

Women's 470 skipper J.J. Isler finished sixth and third, and is third with one race to go.

The deciding 470 races will be sailed Wednesday (Tuesday night EDT). Foerster won the silver medal in the discontinued Flying Dutchman in 1992 and Isler won the 470 bronze that year.

Britain's Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks were third in Monday's 49er finale to finish four points ahead of the McKees for the silver. Finland's Thomas Johanson and Jyrki Jarvi clinched the gold two days earlier.

Charlie McKee made perfect calls reading the shifts sailing into the final turning mark and they rounded with a big lead.

They hoisted their red spinnaker, hiked out in their trapeze harnesses and blew down the run to the finish, toward Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.

As the fleet returned to Rushcutters Bay, the Finns, Brits and Americans flew their country flag spinnakers. Those sails were used in the first two fleet races, but had to be stowed after organizers discovered that the printing process weakened the cloth.

It's the first sailing medal for the Americans in these games, and leaves them just one short of matching their disappointing total in 1996.

The 49er - named for its length, 4.99 meters - was designed by an Aussie based on the popular Sydney 18-footers.

The McKees were the oldest sailors in the Olympic 49er fleet, which clearly got a lot of attention at these games.

"I think it's an exciting type of boat that the kids sitting at home can look at something like this and say, 'Yeah, that's cool, that's the kind of sailing that I want to do,'" Jonathan McKee said. "Not to take anything away from the other classes, but it's fun to be a part of something that's kind of cutting edge."

Finn skipper Russ Silvestri of Tiburon, Calif., improved one spot to seventh overall after finishes of sixth and 11th. Star skipper Mark Reynolds of San Diego, a four-time Olympian and former gold medalist, dropped a spot to 11th after finishing 11th and fifth. The Finns and Stars have seven races left.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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