Right now, athletes from all over the world have gathered in Beijing for the Summer Olympics.

Thousands of competitors are competing for medals in a variety of sports, including traditional events like track and field, basketball, soccer, gymnastics and softball. In addition, in a nod to changing times, some less-traditional sports like beach volleyball, mountain biking and triathlon are on the Olympic program.

While making an Olympic team in any sport is not likely for most people, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t chances to compete in sports that are featured in the Olympics.

Current Publishing is taking a look at ways for local athletes to take part in some of the sports that are featured in the Olympics.

This week, we take a look at sailing, an event that has been a part of the Summer Games for over a century, making its debut in the Paris Olympics in 1900.

Sailing in the Olympics may be out of reach for most, but sailing like an Olympian doesn’t need to be.

SailMaine, situated on Thames Street on Portland’s waterfront, counts eight Ynglings among its fleet. The three-person boat serves as the women’s keelboat in the Olympics. SailMaine uses its Ynglings for a winter Frostbite racing series, among other occasions.

“You can’t necessarily go play against the dream team at Madison Square Garden, but you can get in an Olympic boat and sail one,” said Jeff Cumming, sailing master at SailMaine.

Sarah Helming, the SailMaine junior program director and a special education teacher at Thornton Academy in Saco, has even had the opportunity to sail with an Olympian. While a student at Boston College, she teamed with Carrie Howe in a 420 – the vessel of choice for most high school and college racing. Howe is currently competing on the U.S. Yngling team competing in the Beijing games, racing in the waters off the coast of Qingdao, China.

Helming said that after college, Howe was contacted by Sally Barkow, who skippers the Olympic boat (Debbie Capozzi is the team’s third member). In 2003, they began a campaign to qualify for Beijing.

“To really do an Olympic campaign is not just a four-year commitment,” said Cumming, who supported the campaign of Mikee Anderson-Mitterling and Dave Hughes, the 470 men’s alternates at the Olympics. “You don’t just get in at the beginning of the quadrennium, start sailing the boat and hope to qualify in four years. It’s really a six- or seven-year commitment.”

A campaign not only involves serious training and competition, but also raising money. Lots of money.

“In the financial area of the sport, ‘haves’ definitely have the advantage over ‘have-nots,'” said Cumming, a former captain of the sailing team at the University of Southern Maine. “The sort of thing we’re trying to do here (at SailMaine) is introduce people to the sport, to lower barriers to get them into it, but ultimately if you want to be a competitive Olympic candidate, you have to have a brand new boat, you have to have a coaching budget and you have to cover travel expenses. It’s six figures a year anyway.”

A full Olympic campaign could top a million dollars, as Cumming said $250,000 per year is a reasonable estimate of costs. To help out Anderson-Mitterling and Hughes, his old friend and racing partner, Cumming has traveled from coast to coast to offer a hand.

“We’ve helped them mostly by providing coaching,” he said. “I’ve been to Miami several times and Long Beach (Calif.). I’ve spent several months on the road with those guys trying to help with logistics and management.”

With all the complexities and intricacies of sailing, top-level teams need constant coaching to get an edge.

“Most of the solid campaigns that are really going somewhere and really have a goal of being a top competitor at the trials will have a coach boat at every regatta, if they can,” Cumming said.

The jobs are many for those in the coach boat. They take video and still photos, discuss strategy, analyze weather conditions, take current readings, and supply water and food.

“Just about anything you can think of, in a range from team mother to high-powered tactics guru, and everything in between,” Cumming said.

For the sailors, the work in the water is only part of the overall commitment to a campaign.

“Most of the guys and girls on the Olympic circuit have to spend a lot of time fundraising, a lot of time soliciting donations and sponsorships,” Cumming said.

Typical sponsors are sunglass and sunscreen brands, travel Web sites and the makers of sailing gear. Networking is crucial to achieving the needed money.

“It comes down to who you know a lot of the time,” Cumming said. “People who have money and are willing to support Olympic campaigns aren’t necessarily perfectly democratic about it. They tend to give to campaigns of people they know or have developed a relationship with.”

Those Americans who completed a successful campaign and qualified for the 2008 Olympics numbered 18 athletes competing in 11 classes. One thing they share? Dedication.

“People that are successful in sailing are very dedicated,” Helming said. “It’s a very mental sport because there are so many different variables involved in sailing. You are dependent on the wind and the conditions on the water, so you have to have patience. And determination because there are so many ups and downs during the course of a race. I think the misconception is that it’s not a very physical sport.”

When Helming got an e-mail report from Howe prior to the Olympics on the algae problem in China that was inhibiting the crew’s training, she knew better than to worry about Howe’s psyche.

“What’s really unique about sailing is there are always some really intense elements -there’s always these quirky things,” Helming said. “Carrie and I used to sail on the Charles River together in Boston. The wind changes constantly. And with the city surrounding the Charles, you’ve got wind that goes around the high buildings, which makes it very shifty and challenging. I have really fond memories of sailing with her on that river because we’d love that element of challenge. Knowing that it was really hard made it more interesting. I can see her taking this algae challenge on and not being fazed by it. She might make some jokes about how gross it is.”

Sailing, even at the world-class level, doesn’t have the status and popularity of, say, basketball or swimming. Many more youngsters are shooting hoops in the driveway or racing a friend in the neighborhood pool than are learning the lines of a 420. But that adds to the sense of solidarity non-Olympic sailors feel with their Olympic brethren.

“Sailing is very much a sport that has an active social aspect to it,” Cumming said. “Sailors tend to enjoy life and like to get together and trade stories, celebrate victories and talk about near misses. I think you’ll find in any sailing community, wherever you go, a pretty tight-knit group. In the U.S., sailing isn’t basketball or baseball. The community is smaller, and that tends to accentuate it.”

For those with Olympic sailing aspirations, Cumming suggests getting on the water at a young age.

“Start in small boats,” he said. “Do some junior racing. Get into high school sailing if they have it in your area. And definitely go to college and race in college. When you are racing in college at the upper levels, you’re racing against future Olympians right then.”