The Olympics were made for me. Lose the Olympics and our most brilliant athletes like Finn sailor Giles Scott (left) and Ben Ainslie before him would vanish from the public consciousness, together with any hope of sailing ever earning a wider audience
have made it more exciting and athletic than in the past. Sailors are fitter and younger than before. It will be a rare day indeed that a sailor approaching 40 will step up for an Olympic medal nowadays. The Olympic sailor-athlete image has come of age. Funny thing, ISAF tried to go to the next level after the London Olympics by introducing kiteboarding to the Olympic Games for Rio, and got blasted for doing it. Just too progressive for the conservative sailing community. That, and the windsurfing mafia went to war. Looking back, seeing lots of kiteboards racing every week in San Francisco, and no windsurfing racing, I have to wonder if we ended up with the right answer.
The need for the grand final – as in other sports Most, almost all other, Olympic sports have a final, a moment when you either perform or you don’t stand on the podium. A set time that it all gets decided. Sailing does not fit that model particularly well. To add to sailing’s challenges, we are weather dependent. Too much wind, too little wind, and the racing is postponed or unfair. Imagine the pressure on the race officer who has to make the call between cancelling a medal race or sail an unfair race that is just a lottery. Add to that TV coverage and its unforgiving demands. The fix: medal races that keep the medallists unknown to the end. You really need to dominate the early rounds to win a medal before the last day now. The racing, particularly the medal races, are now ‘stadium’ races, sailed very close to shore so the public can see the action. Boats have trackers, and selected classes have cameras delivering live TV. In fact, live broadcast of all the racing is the ultimate goal, but success is reached when each of the medal races makes it to the world’s TVs.
While we are at it, let’s go through some other factors in the mix of medal races. The ‘brand’ would like sailing to emulate swimming or almost any other Olympic sport where the medals are won on the last day of the competition. A grand final. None of this winning with a day to spare – that makes bad TV and is unthinkable in other sports like swimming and rowing. Gold, silver and bronze medals are going to be awarded in each of the classes, thus there will be Olympic champions. You can argue that current reality TV would embrace a winner-takes- all, one-race final. Not if you’re a competitor with a nice lead going into the last race, though. As sailors, we all have a very strong sense of a fair competition. Strange wind shifts or no wind at all make for a random world that we counter with lots of races. The integrity of the competition demands fairness in the races and results. Race officers have to balance the fairness of the competition and the need for the show by the Olympic brand. Does the race start at the appointed TV time or wait for better conditions? Big call, with lots of pressure from all sides. And a need for clear, strong thinking. Always reminds me of Jack Nicholson’s ‘You Can’t Handle the Truth’ speech in A Few Good Men. (Google it; it’s great!) Finally, I am going to go where no right-thinking man should go, but it would be copping out not to talk about it – pollution on the racecourse in Rio. As you are now well aware, it could be considered a delicate subject in the overall picture of keeping sailing in the Olympics. Cause too much stink (sorry about the pun) and the pro- tectors of the Olympic brand will be upset about tarnishing that brand. But if the sailors are at serious risk, you must stand up. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the world got sold a bill of goods from the Brazilian politicians about the clean-up of the waters before the Olympic opening ceremony. It would also have been nice to have had milestones agreed upon with the IOC for each of the four years before the Games, to show the clean-up was on track. As I say, 20/20 hindsight.
Now it comes down to risk to the sailors vs risk to sailing’s position in the Olympic brand. Speculation and opinion are rife; facts are harder to come by. Time for some cool heads and clear thinking, or we really will be in the shit.
SEAHORSE 23
Delivering excellence in global racing logistics for over 25 years...
Contact us for more information
+44 (0) 2380 480 480
racing@petersandmay.com
www.petersandmay.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76