World Sailing Council Decision « Will be Changed » - says Finn Class

Olympic Legend Paul Elvstrom
Sailing his Finn in 1960
Following the announcement of the sailing events for the 2024 Olympics, the Finn Class put out a statement, that claims that « the women’s event that suits women of around 70 kg » … « will be changed. »

While the submission approved by the World Sailing Council clearly specifies a targeted weight of 70 kg for female sailors for this new event, Balazs Hajdu, the President of the International Finn Association, said in the press statement, “We believe that singlehanded sailing is one of the pinnacles of Olympic sailing and we are glad to see that it was decided to give a chance to lighter weight women to sail at the Olympics in a singlehanded boat."

And he continues, "This gives many countries around the world a chance to join Olympic sailing and also create youth programmes for young sailors with Olympic dreams.”

(bold/italics by the writer of this post)

How the change would be done? Via the equipment committee apparently. The statement reads: « The Equipment Committee will define the criteria to decide the equipment in November 2018, with the intention to have a one-person women’s boat to suit a different physique. »
Excerpt from Finn Class Statement
So there are several ways to interpret the World Sailing Council vote. The literal one, with the mixed singlehanded event to involve female sailors of around 70 kg, which could be done in a Laser Radial, RS Aero 7, a Melges 14 (with intermediate sail) or equivalent boat, in an International Moth, a Waszp or equivalent foiling dinghy or, as some cynical observers suggested, in a new Finn FX.

The other way to read the World Sailing Council vote is that a collective mistake — a « monster error about women and body weight » according Sailing Anarchy’s editorial « Sailing Dimoprhism » — was done. And that the real intention was to target more light weight female sailors for this controversial new mixed singlehanded dinghy event.  In this case, if the targeted weight is say 50 to 60 kg, key contenders would be boats such as the Open Bic, the RS Aero 5 and the Laser 4.7.

Finn Class Cautiously Delighted

While the submission is unclear about which equipment would be used for the female athlete in the new mixed event, it is pretty clear for men, as it states that « The Finn would be retained for the men’s equipment.»

Yet some media outlets received emails from World Sailing asking them to disregard the equipment part of the submission, so it’s not 100% clear that the Finn, even reduced to a half-medal, is totally safe for Paris 2024.

The Finn Class is cautious in its statement: « While the Finn class realizes that this new style of event presents challenges to those who are creating the formats for the 2024 Olympics, it is delighted that Council voted for an event slate where the Finn was potentially included. »

À suivre … 

Check our previous post about the exclusion of light weight women from single-handed dinghy racing a the Olympics: https://optimist-openbic-sailing.blogspot.ca/2018/05/light-weight-female-single-handed.html

Link: Statement from the Finn Class on the selection of Events for the 2024 Olympic Games — https://mailchi.mp/deaves/statement-from-the-finn-class-on-the-selection-of-events-for-the-2024-olympic-games?e=38d04722a9

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