Light Weight Female Single-Handed Dinghy Sailors Again Excluded from the Olympics?
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| Why is World Sailing Targeting 70 Kg (155 lbs) for its new single-handed female event (part of its new single-handed mixed event)? |
The M22 submission is from the Romanian Sailing Federation. It keeps several categories: Laser Standard, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX and foiling Nacra. It also keeps the windsurfing, but on new equipment. The 470 is still there too, but as a mixed event. There is a new « mixed kite event » on « new equipment ». And finally, there is another new event — a bizarre « Mixed One-Person Dinghy » - that will allow for the Finn to remain in the Olympics as equipment for men, and there will be new equipment for women.
After much back and forth, the 470 and Finn would remain in the Olympics, but at a cost: the 470 would be a mixed event (2 sailors instead of 4), and the Finn will have to share its medal with a female dinghy sailor.
This new event is highly innovative to say the least, and represents a rupture from over a century of sailing tradition at the Olympics - sailing regattas were raced for the first time at the Paris Olympics in 1900.
The rationale presented in the submission is as follows: « it is important that the events at the Olympic Games enable a wide range of physiques and weights to compete. Retaining the Finn dinghy would maintain the opportunities for men in the range of around 90kg plus, and give a new opportunity for women weighting around 70kg to compete. » (70 kg = 155 lbs ; 90 kg = 200 lbs)
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| Excerpt of Submission M22-18 |
There were several demands by delegations such as Canada to include a much lighter-weight female dinghy option. The submission by Canada was calling for a targeted athlete size of 150-165 cm and 50-60 kg (110 - 132 lbs), which is really on the low side.
https://optimist-openbic-sailing.blogspot.ca/2018/04/sail-canada-calls-for-very-light-weight.html
As discussed in this blog, the weight categories in other sports are much more representative of the world population. For example, for Olympic weight lifting, four out the eight weight categories are for female athletes below 63 kg (139 lbs).
https://optimist-openbic-sailing.blogspot.ca/2018/04/sailing-and-weight-lifting.html
So, in its current form, the M22 submission clearly fails « to enable a wide range of physiques and weights to compete. » Actually, it reduces the range of physiques and weights, as it forces the 470 into a mixed event.
Indeed, since the Radial has become olympic for women, lighter weight women have no other choice but to compete in double handed, chiefly in the 470 - but now the number of slots has been divided by two with the creation of a mixed 470 event.
There was a brief exception when Match racing was introduced, but it only lasted one olympic cycle, at the 2012 London games.
Before the Laser Radial, between 1992 and 2000, the Europe was the female single-handed dinghy at the Olympics, and covered a weight range of approx. 60 to 70 kg, i.e. wider and a bit lower than the Radial - enabling more lighter sailors, with a wider range of weights, to compete.
Note that if a foiling boat, such as the Wazsp, was adopted for female sailors in the context of this new single-handed mixed event, it would not resolve the issue of targeted weight range, as equipment aimed at sailors of 70 kg will be unsuitable for lighter sailors say of 50 to 65 kg.
This latter weight range of 50 to 65 kg (110 to 145 lbs) is the one that World Sailing should seek to cover, if it were to actually enable a wider range of physiques and weights to compete.
Let’s hope this will be corrected - even if that is just one part of the many problems to be expected with this new Mixed Single-Handed event - which is attempting to squeeze into one what should normally be two separate events.
