Yachts & Yachting - July 2018

Above

A Mixed

Kitesurfing event

will feature at the

2024 Olympics

UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS

In the run up to the meeting, classes, Member National

Authorities and World Sailing committees were invited

to submit proposals for the make-up of events at the

Olympic Games in 2024, with four events having been

selected as possibilities for change previously: the Men’s

and Women’s Doublehanded Dinghy; Men’s Heavyweight

Dinghy; Men’s and Women’s Windsurfer. More than

60 submissions were put forward for consideration.

All submissions were then put before the Council and

any receiving both a proposer and a seconder were

then put to Council vote (14 submissions in total this

time). Each submission was then voted on by Council

following a presentation by a representative of those

responsible for the submission. The submissions were

then voted on with only those receiving 50 per cent

of the votes moving into the next round of voting.

Voting continued, whittling down the submissions until

the two favoured submissions were left, at which point a

vote between the two was held on a most-votes-wins basis.

fact that the submission that was inally

voted through was also one which kept

options on the table for both the 470

(which seems likely to be selected for

the Mixed Doublehanded Dinghy event)

and the Finn (which you would imagine

is a strong contender for the Men’s side

of the Mixed Singlehanded Dinghy).

It’s also worth noting that, should

the 470 be selected for the Mixed

Doublehanded Dinghy, then a path for

lighter females is instantly introduced –

the 470 sails at its best with a relatively

light helm and heavier crew. In fact, it

is a class almost born for mixed sailing

with men oten struggling to get down to

weight and women (crews in particular)

oten looking to put on weight.

“But this is the thing, we can talk

about all these variables and yes, it

might be the case that, the 470 were

selected and opened up that position

but every decision has a variable

attached to it,” argues Andersen.

NEW CONCEPTS

Whether due to the result of class

lobbying, a desire to see Olympic options

for lighter women and heavier men, or

concerns over keelboat costs and how to

it an ofshore circuit into the established

Olympic sailing circuit - what we have

been let with is an event the likes of

which we have not seen at the Olympics.

So, just what might the Mixed

Olympic Singlehaded Dinghy event look

like? “Right now, just a few days ater

the decision, the Events Committee

is working on putting together a

timetable for evaluating the options

and that will be a priority for them.

It will be true also of the Kitesuring,

which is a mixed event. We will be

looking at the format for that too and

that could also be many things.”

Ultimately, it seems most likely that

the Mixed Singlehanded Dinghy will

consist of concurrent regattas with scores

combined into one inal score. But, if

this were the case, is it really a ‘mixed’

event in anything other than name?

“One of the areas I think we have been

very forward-thinking is in making our

events gender equal. his was the aim

before the IOC stated their intention for

50:50 gender equity. And that is quite

a new thing for a sports association to

do. But one of the things World Sailing

decided some time ago was that we talk

about how to keep females engaged and

we oten talk about the grass roots, but

sometimes you have to force the issue

and say ‘the Olympics are the elite of the

sport, if we make that gender equal there

will be more opportunities through the

rest of the sport’. It is not good enough to

try and only work from the bottom up.

“You can see the efect of that in the

Volvo Ocean Race, where they now have

more women competing and gaining

experience alongside the men. So far

in our sport there have always been

more opportunities for men, so there

are more competing at the top level. If

we have events where men and women

compete together, the opportunity

for the men means sharing skills,

information and campaigns with women.

“SointheMixedSinglehandedmen

and women are competing together

foramedalandinformationhasto

besharedifyouwanttowin.”

KITESURFING

“he good thing about the introduction

of kite suring is that the equipment

cost can be quite low, so it is good

for engaging new nations. It is also

an exciting and growing sport and

it will be a good addition to the

sailing line-up,” Andersen says of

the controversial new addition.

Exciting and growing it may be, but

what does he say to those who claim

it is not a part of sailing and should be

looking for inclusion as its own sport?

“We have had kitesuring alongside

sailing at some of our events [Sailing

World Cup in Hyères and Sailing World

Cup Final in Santander in 2017]. When

we speak to the athletes, other sailors are

quite clear that these are sailors. What

they are doing is sailing, so for me I

don’t see this as an issue. It feels like the

debate we had when windsuring was

introduced to the Olympic Games.”

Andersen also goes on to make

the point that of the two remaining

submissions in the inal vote process

both had kitesuing in them, so the

inal vote carried no sway in this. To

that end the argument can be made

that the selection of kitesuing was

something of a forgone conclusion.

All in all, there are, absolutely, points

within this decision to be commended

and principal in those is creating gender

balance at the Olympics. But the selection

of an event which does not currently

exist in sailing is clearly an option led

by lobbying and concerns about change

over and above the long-term good of the

sport. It seems steps are being made to

sort the Olympic selection process out,

butjustasclearly,wearenotthereyet.

What we are left with is

an event the likes of which

we have not seen at the

Olympics

C/O WORLD SAILING

July 2018 Yachts & Yachting 21