Olympic Sailing May Need to Learn from ... Weight Lifting!

India's Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, 2017 Weight Lifting
World Champion in the 48 kg (106 lbs) category
At the top level of dinghy racing, weight matters, and a lot! There are various articles showing how weight ranges are very narrow for boats such as the Laser Standard and the Finn.

(beware, many of the weights attributed to sailors are self-reported weights, and not the real weight at the time of the competition).

It's in that context interesting to see how other sports deal with weight categories. An interesting one is Weight Lifting. This is one of the most traditional olympic sports.

For both men and women, there are 8 weight categories!

Here are those for men.

Men's weight classes:
  • 56 kg (123 lb)
  • 62 kg (137 lb)
  • 69 kg (152 lb)
  • 77 kg (170 lb)
  • 85 kg (187 lb)
  • 94 kg (207 lb)
  • 105 kg (231 lb)
  • 105 kg and over (231 lb+)

Interestingly, if you look at these categories, and think about sailing, the 85 kg (187 lbs) category corresponds pretty closely to the Laser Standard.  The 105 kg (231 lb) category corresponds pretty closely to the Finn, as well as, to a lesser extent, the 94 kg category.

So here we are. 2 boats addressing only 2 or 3 out of what could be a total of 8 weight categories. This clearly shows that many athletes, particuarly the light ones, are presently forced into other boats than single-handed dinghies.

Having 8 single handed dinghies would be exaggerated, but clearly, widening the weight ranges, and having at least one single-handed boat that could be sailed by athletes weighting less than 77 kg (170 lbs) would make lots of sense.

This would in fact be a game changer for world sailing, and youth sailing, if that boat is accessible and affordable.

For women, there are also 8 categories.

Women's weight classes:
  • 48 kg (106 lb)
  • 53 kg (117 lb)
  • 58 kg (128 lb)
  • 63 kg (139 lb)
  • 69 kg (152 lb)
  • 75 kg (165 lb)
  • 90 kg (198 lb)
  • 90 kg and over (198 lb+)

Currently, the Radial corresponds pretty much to the 69 kg (152 lbs) category, and to a less extent the 75 kg one. So that's just one or two out of the 8 categories.

As discussed in this article , broadening, and slightly lowering the weight range for the singlehanded female dinghy would also make lots of sense.

Note that the 48 and 53 kg categories could be sailed in an Optimist ! That is a reminder about how light female athletes can be.

References

Wikipedia about Olympic Weight Lifting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_weightlifting#Weight_classes

Analysing Weight Distribution of Finn Sailors article, which also covers Laser sailor weight. https://www.finnclass.org/news/20-news/980-analysing-weight-distribution-of-finn-sailors


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