World Sailing has received confirmation from the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Executive Board, on the event programme and athlete quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The decisions announced Monday 7 December, come following an IOC Programme Commission recommendation.
They were as follows:
- Mixed Kiteboarding (Formula Kite) and the Mixed Two Person Dinghy (470) will feature at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Competition.
- The IOC would like to further review the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat Event in order to properly assess the key considerations around safety and security of the athletes. The specific event proposal will be decided as soon as practicably possible but no later than 31 May 2021.
- The athlete quota for sailing at Paris 2024 will be 330, which is a decrease of 20 from the 350 at Tokyo 2020.
In the IOC decision there are two set-backs for World Sailing:
The decision to further review the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat Event and the 20 person reduction in the athlete quota for sailing in 2024.
Sailing already has one of the smallest quotas of athletes per event, and World Sailing will now have to make further cuts to the qualification numbers.
World Sailing said that . . . “the Events Committee will now review the individual Event quotas to promote and grow universality and participation in all disciplines”.
The new Events have been included in World Sailing’s Events Strategy for the next quadrennial with sailors already training and preparing for Paris 2024.
David Graham, World Sailing’s Chief Executive Officer, commented . . .
“We’re looking forward to continuing our close collaboration with the IOC and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee to answer the important questions on the Mixed Offshore Event to ensure safety and security of the world’s best sailors.”
“It is obviously disappointing to receive an athlete quota reduction, but this has impacted many sports, not just sailing. We appreciate the difficult decisions the IOC had to make in order to deliver the requirements set out in IOC Agenda 2020.”
World Sailing concluded . . .
The safety and well-being of athletes in the Olympic Sailing Competition is a joint priority between the IOC, Paris 2024 and World Sailing. World Sailing will now work closely and quickly with the IOC and Paris 2024 to address the queries, in the hope to obtain final confirmation as soon as practicably possible.
