We are now well into the swing of the Paris Olympics 2024 and Team GB are off to a flying start. The first gold medal for Great Britain at the Olympics was claimed on day three in the team eventing competition for mountain biking and equestrian.
Today, the sailing event will take place with the men’s and women’s skiff along with the men’s and women’s windsurfing taking place. Sailing has been a part of every Olympics since 1908, and Team GB has been particularly successful in this sport. The sport was originally supposed to be in the first Olympics in 1896 but was canceled due to high winds. Now, there are 330 athletes competing across 10 events and eight boat classes.
Ben Ainslie, a decorated sailor in Olympic history, has helped lead British sailing to success. Hannah Mills is another standout female athlete in the sailing world. The Olympic sailing event will feature various classes including iQFOiL for men and women’s windsurfing, Formula Kite for men and women’s kite, ILCA 7 for men’s one-person dinghy, ILCA 6 for women’s one-person dinghy, 49er for men’s skiff, 49erFx for women’s skiff, 470 for mixed dinghy, and Nacra 17 for mixed multihull.
The iQFOiL class is a new Olympic windsurf class that uses foils instead of a daggerboard, allowing the board to lift out of the water. Formula Kite is another new event that will see athletes reach speeds of up to 40 knots on hand-controlled kites. ILCA 6 and ILCA 7 are popular single-handed dinghies, with ILCA 6 being used by women and ILCA 7 being the original rig used by Ben Ainslie in his early Olympic victories.
The 49er and 49erFx classes are two-handed skiffs used in the Olympics, and the 470 is a double-handed monohull planing dinghy. The Nacra 17 is a mixed multihull event that was introduced in Rio 2016. The scoring process in Olympic sailing involves fleet racing where all competitors race at the same time, and points are awarded based on finishing positions.
Sailing at the 2024 Olympics will take place in the Marseille Marina, 660km from Paris. The courses will vary depending on the class but generally follow a ‘trapezoid’, ‘windward-leeward’, or ‘slalom’ format. The top 10 boats will compete in a medal race where points are doubled to determine the overall winner. With sailing being a longstanding and exciting part of the Olympics, it’s sure to provide thrilling competition at Paris 2024.
