Paris 2024: IOC confirms mixed keelboat event withdrawn from 2024 Olympic regatta

by Richard Gladwell / Sail-World / com / nz Jun 10 3:58 PM PDT

The International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach announced that the IOC “has accepted World Sailing’s proposal to divide the previously approved mixed kite event into individual male and female kite events”.

This announcement, at a press conference following a three-day IOC meeting, ends World Sailing’s two years of indecision over the 2024 Olympic events, and it is up to the International Olympic Committee to shape sport at the Olympic Games. level.

Two other sports were the subject of changes to the event program, namely athletics where a 50 km walk will be transformed into a mixed event, and a new format for modern pentathlon.

However, the effect of the IOC’s decision, selected from among three proposals put forward by World Sailing, is that the Finnish men’s heavyweight solitaire has been withdrawn from the Olympic sailing regatta, with the implication that there is no more Olympic events in which men weighing over 85 kg can compete for physical reasons.

The 2024 Olympic events will not include five events involving classes of foils, and four of them will use boards and not boats.

There will also be only two mixed events, a reduction from World Sailing’s initial proposal when there would have actually been only four. Now the existing two-person mixed multihull (Nacra17) is joined by the two-person mixed dinghy, and the other two are in effect a one-person mixed kite, and the two-person mixed offshore keelboat, offered by World Sailing, was not accepted by the IOC.

The change of equipment in one person windsurf boards for men and women will remain as proposed (however, this is a secondary consideration for the IOC) and will move to the iQFoil foil windsurfing class.

The IOC rejected the proposals for World Sailing events for which there was no recognized world championship, namely the mixed kite and the mixed offshore keelboat.

Last month, World Sailing received a letter from the International Olympic Committee asking World Sailing to submit alternative proposals for the mixed sea keelboat event, and World Sailing, while continuing to make mixed offshore its favorite event. , proposed to split two mixed events – the Mixed Kite and Mixed 470 into separate male and female events.

Although Lausanne put forward three concerns regarding the mixed offshore keelboat, World Sailing continued with changes to this event which consisted of setting a course in a 20nm rectangle, saying this would alleviate the IOC’s concerns about the cost of the cover. and security. These World Sailing recommendations were also dismissed by the IOC.

The rejection / non-acceptance of the mixed keelboat proposal by the IOC is also contrary to assurances given to the World Sailing Council that the IOC was “on board” of the initial list of events offered by World Sailing. It clearly was not. The changes announced by the IOC bring the sailing events more in line with other summer sports that needed to adjust their events to comply with IOC gender equality requirements, which they mainly achieved by hosting Identical events for men and women. Claims made at the World Council level that the IOC did not want weight / physique categorized events outside of combat sports do not stand up to scrutiny as rowing has its list of summer Olympic events approved with the men’s and women’s lightweight pairs events included as two of the 14 events.

The other major announcement from the International Olympic Committee is that Brisbane will host the 2032 Summer Olympics, subject to a final confirmation vote from IOC members. Brisbane will be the third Olympic Games organized by Australia. This vote will take place in July 2021.