When checking in for a race, sailor Carol Newman Cronin ’86 typically calls out her assigned number to a race committee. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, things were a bit different: she hailed three letters. “We didn’t have sail numbers for the Olympics, only country letters,” she said. “It hit me when we checked in as ‘USA’ [that] we were representing our country.” Cronin competed in the Yngling division, which was introduced into Olympic competition for the first time that summer. “There were a lot of us there, including my team, who had already aged out of the other Olympic options, so it was very exciting to have another shot at the Games,” said Cronin, who was 40 at the time. Rather than race in this month’s Olympic Games, Cronin will watch fellow Camel sailor Amanda Clark ’05 compete on television. “It’s great to see the Camels so well-represented at the games, and I’ll definitely be watching Amanda and [teammate] Sarah Mergenthaler,” she said. Cronin remains committed to the sport and owns Live Wire Designs, a company based in Jamestown, R.I., that has provided graphic design and writing for the sailing industry since 1998. She designs logos for sailing teams and companies and writes articles for publications such as Sailing World Magazine and Cruising World. She initially learned about graphic design at the College and later took courses at the Rhode Island School of Design. Cronin credits Elinor Despalatovic, Professor Emeritus of History at Connecticut College, for encouraging her to write professionally. “Learning that my writing skills were special from her freshman year gave me the confidence to pursue my love of the written word,” she said. Taking her writing career one step further, Cronin will debut her first book, Oliver’s Surprise, this September. The fictional story centers around a 12-year-old boy from Rhode Island who travels back in time just before the 1938 hurricane hits. The book started as a Christmas present for her nephew, Oliver. “The rest developed from my interest in how intertwined history is with our present,” said Cronin. “Majoring in history taught me that what’s around us didn’t just happen by accident; it comes from a series of every day decisions that add up to big changes over time.” Cronin, who sailed at Connecticut College during the early stages of the program, had her very first sailing adventure when she was only ten days old. She continues to race Snipes and small keelboats. “It is a lifetime sport and there are an infinite number of ways to enjoy it,” she said. -Rachel Harrington | 
