Paul Cayard No-brainer?


Rob Weiland


If sailing is ever to really promote mixed double- handed offshore sailing there will be no better chance than the 2024 Paris Olympics. Why? Besides New Zealand there is no country more


into sailing as a mainstream sport than France. Possibly if an event is about offshore sailing France tops New Zealand when it comes to


popularity, almost certainly France tops New Zealand if it is about the general public admiring the heroism of the shorthanded sailors. One and one still make two and so the 2024 Olympics being


held in France is a one-time opportunity to see a crowd attending a sailing event unparalleled in the history of the Olympics – and quite possibly of the sport as a whole. That would require the French to break their own records they set at the departure of each Vendée Globe. Not all that impossible as this one might draw quite a number of international fans as well. With Spain and Italy not that far from Marseille it could be quite stressful to even get close to the action. But all this success would require, however timely the confirma-


tion of the event, good planning and longterm media strategy. Start- ing to give it attention weeks before the start won’t do the trick. Does doublehanded offshore sailing need the 2024 Paris


Olympics to establish itself and grow? No, it does not. Just look at the entry for this year’s IRC 2H class in the Fastnet race: 89


completely different stories. One story hard to relate to and get excited about, and the other easy to frame as a sea battle. Perhaps a mini version of the Transat or Vendée, fighting the ocean, the weather, sleep deprivation, teamwork and so on. Possibly sailing the Finn can be framed as fighting for the heavy-


weight title in boxing? But still, as there is no physical contact, plus no clear boundaries, and the main outside element, the breeze, is impossible to read – or connect with – it is hard for any viewer other than a racing sailor watching the racing on a screen to imagine how it is to be on the helm, hiking, contemplating tactics and trimming at the same time. You do not see the pain, the stress, the doubts. Most of the time it is not even clear who is doing well… or not. Just looking at images I can understand why kites and iFoils


make a better story. I understand the visual attraction of the 49er over more traditional designs like the Laser or 470, and I certainly understand why mixed-gender racing is seen to add value. And so I do understand the choices made for the 2024 Olympics and why this is a never-ending debate. For 2028 and so on different choices will be made… past motivations are no guarantee for the future. Offshore sailing is a discipline of our sport. Our sport is not dinghy


sailing, or windsurfing or kiting for that matter, but is sailing. And as such offshore sailing shall be considered as one of the Olympic options, like any other class or diversification, to showcase the full extent of our sport. Nobody can argue that offshore sailing is just a minor or less competitive component of our sport. Whether in number of competitors, in technical requirements,


in its variation of formats, classes and courses, offshore sailing is one of sailing’s biggest components. Combined with the oppor- tunity to send the gender equality message, and the marketing qualities of offshore sailing, the only ‘technicalities’ to be resolved possibly are money and safety. Certainly for the event in France money and safety are minor issues compared to time to plan and set up for an offshore event. So decide now – instead of taking the coward’s way out of letting time make the call for you. It was one of Baron de Coubertin’s ideas that to participate was


more important than to win, ‘not the triumph but the struggle’. And so came the romantic but sympathetic idea that universal compe- tition would bring greater understanding between cultures and, therefore, contribute to peace. ‘His’ Olympics were to be an amateur competition, in line with his view on sportsmanship – which some critics now claim was in fact to protect upper-class participation. De Coubertin was, however, not unaware of possible repercus-


Above: Hélène de Pourtalès was a remarkable woman, one of 22 female athletes who became the first women to take part in the modern Olympic Games. In 1900 the yacht Lérina which she raced with her husband won the gold medal in a light-air contest on the River Seine in Paris. The 22 women made up two per cent of competitors at the Games yet the ball was rolling. Taking part in the tennis, sailing, equestrian, croquet and golf it is said that due to a lack of publicity many of the 22 pioneers didn’t realise they were in the Olympic Games rather than a regional contest


teams from 13 countries, 25 boats up from the 2019 Fastnet. And then there are the other reduced crew starts in the same event, the Imoca 60s with 11 entries and the Class40s with 33 entries. The question is does Olympic sailing need mixed offshore sailing


to stay in tune with the ever-changing face and demands of the Olympic Games and how it is marketed? The answer to that one could very well be a ‘yes’. It is certainly a step more towards a yes than, for instance, can be achieved by reinstating the Finn dinghy. With all respect to the history of that class and the remarkable


sailors it has produced, and will continue to produce, comparing the marketing value of W/L racing a modest-looking dinghy crewed by a male athlete of around 95kg, with what can be referred to as a sailing marathon for boats with a mixed gender crew, I see two


38 SEAHORSE


sions about the amateur requirement on working-class participation; more than once he publicly criticised the exclusion of working-class athletes, and in line with that he was not against financial compen- sation for athletes for time lost from earning a living. Not quite in line with the idea of participation over triumph, but


surely the reason why the event is still a success today, was its positioning as the pinnacle of international competition. An Olympic gold medal underlines you are the best of the world: citius, altius, fortius. Faster, higher, stronger, the motto of the Olympic Games. The current focus on gender equality shall be seen as (late)


progress from the early ideals of De Coubertin – female participation was not exactly a vision the good baron shared. In a 1912 article (Les femmes aux Jeux Olympiques) he argues that the dogma of gender equality, already then a hot topic, in its final consequence resulting in women and men competing together, would create a token and uninteresting competition in which women will rarely prevail. He then continues to label the option of women having their own competition as impractical, uninteresting and even unaesthetic. I am afraid the good baron goes on to describe the role of women


at the Olympics as to reward the male athletes with applause. Sailing can, however, take pride in having provided the first ever


female Olympic athlete. At the 1900 Games in Paris Countess Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland (American-born in New York as Helen Barbey…) became the first woman not just to compete but also to win, together with her husband Hermann on the helm, with their boat Lérina competing in the nine-boat 1-2 Ton class.


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