IOC decides on sailing programme for 2024: Mixed offshore ends, kiting becomes double Olympic

The news came as no surprise after a long tug-of-war on Thursday evening, but it has hit many offshore sailors around the world as well as the French hosts of the 2024 Olympic Games, who will all have to give up their hopes of a promising Olympic premiere for their favourite discipline, mixed offshore, in three years' time.

Newly formed two-handed crews in many countries have already spent a year or more training in the new mixed offshore discipline. Many associations made initial investments in 2020 so as not to be left behind later. The German Sailing Association (DSV) reacted quickly and organised an active training group in Kiel at the beginning of 2020 under the direction of DSV coach Tim Kröger. According to World Sailing and its members, mixed crews should have been competing for medals on keelboats for the first time in three years off Marseille. This is what World Sailing proposed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following an internal vote by its members. As a rule, the IOC follows the proposals of the international governing bodies when making changes to the sports programme. However, exceptions prove the rule, and mixed offshore was one such exception. From the IOC's point of view, some of the imponderables of the long-distance format contributed to this. The consequences of the pandemic and the lack of opportunities to adequately present the still young discipline and organise world championships also played a role.

World Sailing used this video to promote the new mixed offshore discipline

At a press conference today, IOC President Thomas Bach announced the cancellation of mixed offshore before the premiere after a long nail-biting wait. The discipline itself was not even mentioned, only the winners of this decision: it is the kitesurfers, who will no longer compete as mixed teams with one man and one woman in 2024 - as originally planned - but have been given a separate discipline for men and women. Thomas Bach said succinctly: "The Executive Board has accepted World Sailing's proposal to split the previously approved kitesurfing event into a men's and a women's event." The statement explains well what can be expected in 2024. However, it does not include the fact that the World Sailing Federation had until recently described mixed offshore as the "first choice" and that the alternative proposal to split the kite competition into two was only developed and proposed at the request of the IOC.

The IOC, as the final organising body of the Olympic Games, clearly couldn't warm to the idea of a sailing middle distance for double-handed crews on keelboats. The mixed offshore teams that had joined forces last year now have to live with the shattered dream. Among them are well-known sailing stars such as double Olympic champion Shirley Robertson from Great Britain, who had campaigned and fought hard for the attractive new mixed discipline. The mixed offshore teams in Germany are also very disappointed. However, as the IOC decision did not come unexpectedly at this unusually late stage, the sailors affected took it in their stride.

The decision will probably have little impact on the trend towards two-handed sailing. Max Gurgel from Hamburg, who has been part of the team with Lena Weißkichel in mixed offshore training for more than a year, said after the IOC decision: "We had already come to terms with it and were prepared. Of course it's very, very disappointing. It is simply sad and certainly also historically unusual that World Sailing was overruled by the IOC in this way. Nevertheless, double-handed sailing is and will remain very popular. This discipline requires an incredibly wide range of skills from athletes. You don't get that anywhere else. And that's what makes it so fascinating. I've decided to continue shorthanded and offshore sailing anyway because I enjoy it so much."