medal muddle

You have to wonder if there’s anything more that World Sailing and the IOC can do to further devalue sailing as an Olympic sport.

For decades we’ve been told that the primary aim of ‘updating’ Olympic sailing was to make it more inclusive, more appealing to youth, and more exciting for television. Instead, the 2024 regatta has, with few exceptions, scored poorly on all three of those objectives. Admittedly, the weather was dismal, but the problems ran much deeper than a simple lack of wind.

Take nothing away from the athletes themselves. Where the events in Marseille were conducted in fair breezes, in genuinely popular boats and under sensible scoring rules the acknowledged champions usually did well. But elsewhere some fine sailors who spent years developing their skills were denied medals they probably deserved.

The conventional regatta formats we all know, where races are scored equally with few drops, evolved over many years to reward consistency and reduce the element of luck which can be such a disruptive factor in competitive sailing.

But rather than accept those established principles and concentrate on making Olympic sailing fair and relevant the governing authorities have let the tail wag the dog. By straining to create events they imagine might be more attractive to youth and television, the IOC and World Sailing distorted both the range of classes and the formats they race under…

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