Fia Fjelddahl had a plan for day one in Portimão, and it very nearly didn't survive the first start.
The Swedish RS Venture Connect sailor, racing with Patric Rosenberg, deliberately held back off the line in race one of the 2026 World Sailing Inclusion Championships. Strong currents were in play, and Fjelddahl was determined not to repeat the mistake that cost her a medal at the 2025 World Inclusion Championships in Oman, where a premature start proved fatal to her campaign.
The caution came at a cost. Fjelddahl and Rosenberg started around 20 seconds behind the fleet.
"I thought the race was over," Fjelddahl admits.
What followed was not panic but process. "And then I just said, 'Okay, we go boat by boat… just a little bit quicker than everybody else'. Do the rounding of the marks really well, and we did boat by boat by boat, and then by the end, on the last downwind, we ended up winning the race," she explains.
They did it again in race two. Same conservative start, same patient grind through the fleet, same result. Two wins from two races, built on nothing flashier than clean mark roundings and relentless incremental gains.
It helps that Fjelddahl and Rosenberg know each other's rhythms well. They have sailed together since 2022, and the partnership works because their temperaments balance each other out. Fjelddahl brings nervous energy. Rosenberg brings calm.
Under pressure, that balance matters.
The pair have leaned on a disciplined mantra all week: "metre-by-metre, day-by-day". It is a mindset that keeps them from getting rattled when a race looks lost early. It looked lost on day one. They won anyway.
Fjelddahl is no newcomer to this stage. She competed for Sweden at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games as a young sailor, and she has watched adaptive sailing change substantially in the decade since. Paralympic reinstatement remains a goal the wider sailing community is still chasing, but Fjelddahl sees plenty of reason for optimism regardless.
"In Sweden, we're growing and growing. I feel that the sport is growing in so many nations," she says. "Sailing is such an inclusive sport that everybody can be part of it and we're really showing that here… 10 years after the Paralympics, we're growing and we're better than ever."
That growth is visible across the whole event. The 2026 Championships in Portimão, Portugal, have drawn a record fleet of 222 athletes from 40 nations, a mix of seasoned internationals and sailors new to the sport altogether.
For Fjelddahl, day one was redemption and celebration rolled into one. There is plenty more racing before the week is done, but she has already shown exactly how she intends to sail it: metre by metre, boat by boat, until the fleet is behind her again.
