Paris Olympics 2024: Sailing- history, rules, defending champions

Sailing is much more than a sport. Like rowing, sailing is a means of transportation. Over a thousand years ago, the Vikings were said to have sailed 1000 miles to North America. From the 15th century, advancements in sailing technology helped European explorers in Canada make voyages into regions with extreme weather conditions.

It was in `1851 when international sailing races started being conducted. Members of the New York Yacht Club opted to participate in a sailing competition in England. And to do so, they constructed a 101-foot schooner called America, with which they sailed to England and clinched the Hundred Guineas Cup. That tournament was later renamed the America’s Cup and it is a competition that takes place even now.

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What is sailing’s history at the Olympics?

Although sailing was part of the 1896 Olympics programme in Athens, Greece, bad weather conditions meant that conducting the sport that year was not possible. Sailing made its official Olympic debut in the 1900 Paris Olympics, and barring the 1904 Olympics in St Louis, United States, sailing has featured in every Olympics ever since.

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Since the 1900 Olympics, women were able to compete in sailing competitions with men, but separate events for women at the Olympics were first introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games. In the early years of the Olympics, bigger boats were used for sailing with 10-12 sailors in one boat and time handicaps were used to determine the races. From the 1950s, however, smaller boats were introduced for sailing competitions with fewer crew members.

What are the rules?

Sailing requires some intense physical and mental skill and the biggest challenge for sailors is to move a boat by control the power of the wind. Competitions generally take place in the form of fleet racing , wherein two evenly-matched boats race around the same course.

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Ten sailing events were part of the Tokyo Olympics 2020. This included windsurfing, 49ers, mixed Nacra17 Foiling and the 470. The disciplines of sailing keep changing and evolving and having said that two new events will be introduced to the Olympics in Paris. These are windsurfer – IQFoil and kiteboarding

The opening series races and medal races are two phases in sailing at the Olympics. The number of races in the every series varies with each other. For example, laser and laser radial have 10 races each whereas 49ers have 12 races.

As far as the points system for sailing in Olympics is concerned, a “low points” scoring system is used. In this, the winner of every race is awarded one point, the second place with two points etc.

If a sailor is unable to finish a race or is disqualified, then, he or the team is awarded a point more than the number of boats in the race. For example, if 20 boats take part in the race, the disqualified sailor earns 21 points.

And when it comes to calculating the aggregate total points of a sailor, the points from the worst race performances for each crew are excluded, with the remaining points taken into consideration to determine the standings after the series. Should sailor win points from disqualification, those points cannot be discarded. Simply put, the sailors with lowest points in a series advance to the medal race series.

Who are the defending champions?

Men’s sailing

RS:X: Kiran Badloe (Netherlands)

Laser: Matthew Wearn (Australia)

Finn: Giles Scott (Great Britain)

470: Australia

49er: Great Britain

Women’s sailing

RS:X: Lu Yunxiu (China)

Laser Radial: Anne-Marie Rindom (Denmark)

470: Great Britain

49erFX: Brazil

Mixed sailing event

Nacra 17: Italy

How many athletes will take part in sailing at the Paris Olympics?

A total of 330 athletes will compete in sailing at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Fans will get to witness more than 250 boats from the starting line in sailing at the Paris Olympics.

When and where will sailing take place at the Olympics?

The sailing competitions at the Paris Olympics will take place from 28 July and will go on till 8 August. All sailing events will take place at the Marseille Marina in Marseille.