Before Molly O’Bryan skippered the University of Hawaii to its first national sailing championship and became a three-time All-American and the first sailor to win the school’s most prestigious athletic award (Jack Bonham), she and coach Andy Johnson had a heart to heart after one especially tough day.

"I sat her down and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You are going to be the fastest girl in the world,’" Johnson recalled. "After she qualified for the Olympics, I sent her an email that said ‘Now you are going to be the fastest woman in the world.’"

O’Bryan is now Molly Vandemoer, 33, married to Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer and member of Team Maclaren. Her teammates are Old Dominion graduates Anna Tunnicliffe and Debbie Capozzi. The trio is the fastest women’s Match Racing team on the water, ranked No. 1 in the world and America’s entry into the 2012 Olympics.

"They are world champs," Johnson said. "If you want to bet on somebody it would be them. Not that you can bet."

His former sailor is a woman now, all grown up and living the dream she first had as a child in San Diego. She saw Hawaii for the first time the day before her first college class and immediately took to the challenge of our constant big breeze.

"In the first two months I did something on the water every day except three," she said. "There was so much to do outside, it was so beautiful and everyone was so welcoming. I was hooked."

Right before she graduated in 2002, she finally realized her childhood Olympic dream could come true.

"Then, about three years ago," Vandemoer said, "I thought, ‘I’ve found the team that can make it to the show.’"

She has been friends with Tunnicliffe — who was born in England — and Capozzi since college racing. Their friendship has endured a grueling campaign that saw them on the water 140 days last year. This year, they have been away three weeks of every month.

All three came into this as skippers. Vandemoer and Capozzi are now the crew for Tunnicliffe. She became the first female sailor from the U.S. to win a gold medal in 20 years when she was going solo in Beijing in a Laser radial. She is an "incredibly driven and focused" leader. Capozzi can calm a storm with her sense of humor. Then there is the nurturing "Mother Molly," who has felt in sync with her East Coast teammates from the start.

"It is refreshing to be surrounded by people who have the same end goal," Vandemoer said, "and are willing to sacrifice so much for it."

She has found her niche, as Johnson knew she would. The ability and flat-out desire and aggressiveness were always there, along with the willingness to work for as long as it took.

"Molly got the bar set for us," said Johnson, whose coed team has since won a national title. "That was the level we aspire to be at. She set the bar high and established a real good dedication to the work ethic. The others take a look and say, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to be.’"

Team Maclaren — the sponsor is an English "baby buggy" company — will be part of the Olympic debut for women’s Match Racing. Vandemoer calls it "basically a drag race" between two Elliott 6m keelboats on a 20-minute, two-lap course. Teams can race up to eight times a day so endurance is crucial, with technique, talent, experience and feel for the water and racing even more so.

"We attack each other and try to block the other boat from passing us," Vandemoer said. "It is fast-paced, aggressive, physical, and mentally demanding. It takes all the knowledge of fleet racing and rules and compresses everything on a small course."

Going into the London Games, no one has done it better than Team Maclaren. When the Olympics finally became a reality for Vandemoer, after her team had taken out three other boats ranked in the Top 10 at the U.S. Trials, she wasn’t sure what to feel.

"There was a mixture of emotions," she said. "Adrenalin, relief, a surreal feeling, and then, ‘OK, next.’ I think I said ‘How cool’ about a million times the first two days after winning when I kept thinking about going to the Games. But our end goal has always been to win a gold medal. So relief that we can get on to the next step and then check, next step."

The last Hawaii sailor in the Olympics was John Myrdal, who competed in the Laser class in 2000.