You need to marvel if there’s something extra that World Crusing and the IOC can do to additional devalue crusing as an Olympic sport.
For many years we’ve been advised that the first purpose of ‘updating’ Olympic crusing was to make it extra inclusive, extra interesting to youth, and extra thrilling for tv. As a substitute, the 2024 regatta has, with few exceptions, scored poorly on all three of these aims. Admittedly, the climate was dismal, however the issues ran a lot deeper than a easy lack of wind.
Take nothing away from the athletes themselves. The place the occasions in Marseille had been performed in honest breezes, in genuinely fashionable boats and underneath wise scoring guidelines the acknowledged champions often did effectively. However elsewhere some wonderful sailors who spent years growing their expertise had been denied medals they most likely deserved.
The standard regatta codecs everyone knows, the place races are scored equally with few drops, advanced over a few years to reward consistency and cut back the component of luck which might be such a disruptive consider aggressive crusing.
However fairly than settle for these established rules and focus on making Olympic crusing honest and related the governing authorities have let the tail wag the canine. By straining to create occasions they think about may be extra enticing to youth and tv, the IOC and World Crusing distorted each the vary of courses and the codecs they race underneath.
These of us with an affection for crusing historical past have lengthy deplored the ‘Medal Race’ idea which scores double factors for no obvious purpose aside from the hope that this contrived finale may make the occasion extra thrilling. If the final race scores double, why not the primary?
If that isn’t unhealthy sufficient, we now have knock-out quarter and semi-finals and ludicrous one-off, winner-take-all, three-way sprints to resolve winners.
The UK girl who received the qualifying sequence within the foiling windsurfer class by a 30-point margin (and underneath any regular scoring system could be assured of the gold medal) was relegated to bronze after coming third in that last ‘showdown’ race – which lasted all of seven minutes and 28 seconds. It apparently doesn’t concern World Crusing that most of the people discovered this patently unfair.
Nor have the frequent adjustments of sophistication helped. Blended two-handed offshore racing was to be a medal occasion at Marseille, solely to be deserted when the sensible points proved insurmountable. The persevering with lack of a keelboat class successfully excludes any skipper over 30. Again in 1964 the gold medallist within the 5.5 meters was 59 years outdated (and loved a few stiff double scotches earlier than each race).
The revered Finn was dropped, purportedly on the premise that it unfairly favored bigger sailors. But the winner within the iQFoil class, already an enormous man, fortunately admitted to stacking on an additional 20kg (44lbs) of physique weight simply to make himself extra aggressive.
In the meantime, when will the IOC understand that Olympic crusing isn’t a mainstream tv sport? If it had been, then the racing would function ‘stay’ in prime time on free-to-air TV. As a substitute, we’re fortunate to get 30-second spotlight packages typically broadcast hours – if not days – after the occasions. That’s not an entrenched community prejudice in opposition to the game. It’s merely a business precedence determination based mostly on skilled assessments of viewers enchantment. Sailors perceive and benefit from the racing however the remainder of the world is bemused – or bored.
As to the ideological aim of ‘inclusion’, what the IOC and World Crusing by no means admit is that the game, at Olympic stage, is something however inclusive. It’s, in fact, elitist. Only a few sailors from Second or Third-World nations get to characterize their international locations. Why? As a result of the prices are prohibitive and their alternatives for top-level participation are restricted.
Even the poorest African nations proceed to provide champion distance runners as a result of their proficient kids can compete for the worth of a pair of observe sneakers. Likewise, sprinters from the tiny island nations of the Caribbean can aspire to be the subsequent Usain Bolt. However the price of a foiling Nacra is past them, not to mention the required four-year outlays on teaching, tools, clothes, and journey to the obligatory qualifying regattas.
To underline that time, right here’s the checklist of crusing gold medal-winning nations from Marseille: Italy (2), Spain, Israel, Slovakia, Netherlands (2), Australia, Nice Britain and Austria. Not many ‘growing’ international locations amongst that lot.
Lastly, there may be the a lot broader challenge of whether or not crusing must be within the Olympics in any respect.
A sport that depends so closely on advanced tools with transferring elements, and the luck of variable circumstances, already has a weak declare to the “Quicker, Larger, Stronger” beliefs of the Video games. The unhappy spectacle of some kite-boarders managing to get their kites to fly whereas different entrants – by means of no fault of their very own – didn’t have sufficient breeze to even begin crusing proved the inherent potential for unfairness when excessive courses meet unstable climate.
Thoughts you, if the IOC can undertake break dancing as an Olympic sport, then kiteboarding seems to be virtually professional.
– anarchist David
