Not many people are like Julia Getter, competing at a high level in sailing, traveling around the country with friends, and still managing to be well-rounded in school. Julia attends Corona del Mar High School. Graduating this spring, she will attend Brown University for sailing.

  

Julia’s favorite part about sailing is the “adrenaline of being locked in during the race” and “traveling all over the country with her best friends.” Her competitiveness and drive to win showed in the 2024 C420 US National Championship in New Jersey, where Julia finished in the top five at a national regatta. The tournament featured over 100 boats, and simply qualifying to compete is already considered a major accomplishment in sailing. Finishing fifth overall against some of the best sailors in the country made the achievement even more impressive.

  

Being a Division 1 athlete takes time, dedication, and practice, but how does she balance everything? Julia said that while it’s great to be well-rounded and have an agenda of what you want to accomplish, throughout her freshman through junior year, she focused more on academics and not as much on sailing. During her senior year, she dedicated more of her time to sailing, and it really paid off. Julia told me that “you can’t achieve your goals without sacrificing some of that balance,” explaining that if you want to be the best in your field, you have to prioritize those areas of your life.

 

Besides being one of the best sailors in the country, Julia also enjoys coaching sailing, going on hikes, and even doing hot yoga. One of the questions I asked her was who she looks up to, and she said her older teammates, who served as mentors and are now succeeding in college sailing. She hopes to follow the same path and continue competing at a high level in the future.

 

Julia would also like to thank her coaches, Jon Pinckney and Carly Kieding, for helping her get where she is today, showing her that becoming great at what you want to do takes time, dedication, and grit, and that in the end, you are the one who decides how much you want it.