Mixed teams form for the 2024 Olympic premiere: The mixed boom in the Olympic 470s

No other nation is sending as many 470 mixed teams with Olympic ambitions to the season-opening classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía at the beginning of April as Germany. Even the Spanish hosts, traditionally strong in the 470, are just behind the German Sailing Team with ten 470 mixed teams on the entry list with their nine-boat contingent. The large GER contingent underlines the new appeal of the two-person dinghy designed in 1963, which will celebrate its Olympic premiere as a mixed discipline off Marseille in 2024.

The many newly formed crews are still searching for the optimal interaction between one sailor and one female sailor: seven of the DSV crews operate with female helmsmen, three with male helmsmen. Both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the wind and wave conditions, the weight of the crew, the size of the athletes and the type of interaction and distribution of tasks on board. The best-known mixed sailing doubles under the German flag are currently Luise Wanser (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) with Philipp Autenrieth (Bayerischer Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Malte Winkel with his wife Anastasiya Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein).

Their stories are exciting - and will remain so: Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel had formed a team until their appearance at last year's Olympic Games in Japan, where women and men in the 470 still each had their own discipline and sailed separately for medals. While the German 470 men had missed out on the Olympic qualification, Wanser/Winkel were able to prevail in the national Olympic qualification with a convincing last-minute campaign. They sailed to sixth place before Enoshima with strong performances. There was even more in it, but a tough double disqualification due to harness trousers that were 200 grams too heavy prevented the two ambitious sailors from a possible medal coup. Now they are going for it again, but no longer in the same boat, as the 470 will only be sailed in mixed doubles in the future. Which is why new teams have been formed all over the world. In Germany too.

Luise Wanser wants to fight with Philipp Autenrieth for just one German 470 Mixed starting place for the 2024 Olympics, but is still at the helm. Her former foresailor Anastasiya Winkel is pushing the accelerator together with her husband and helmsman Malte Winkel. These two fiercely competitive teams - once racing together and now against each other - will make for thrilling duels. But there are many more hungry German 470 mixed crews. For example, Theres Dahnke, who was narrowly beaten by Wanser/Winkel in the last national Olympic qualifier, will be competing with Malte Winkel's former cox Matti Cipra. The helmswoman and her coxswain have known each other for a long time and both come from the Plauer Wassersportverein. Like them, Daniel Göttlich and Anna Markfort from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club as well as Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr (Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club/SCBC/CYC) are also members of the German Sailing Team's prospective squad, which has no shortage of talented 470 mixed candidates.

"In good hands with the German group"

The British Steven Lovegrove (seniors) and Marek Chochian are active as 470 mixed coaches, sometimes overlapping. According to many of the athletes, the flexible coach-double pass has worked well so far. "We feel we are currently in good hands in the German group, bringing together many different qualities in a strong team," says Malte Winkel and others. Luise Wanser confirms after the test regatta last weekend: "We haven't competed in a regatta for so long and have still made big mistakes. We are in the process of harmonising the different regatta styles."

Everyone knows: There is a lot of work ahead of the team on the move. Malte Winkel describes the challenges based on the events at the first training regatta off Mallorca in a similar way to other team mates, smiling as he says: "It was accompanied by a few 'fuck-ups'... We were often still lacking calm. We experienced many situations for the first time. There were 40 boats instead of five as in training. If the command and timing structure isn't quite clear yet, then a mainsail sometimes comes from above at the cross. Or a harness hook breaks, which only happens if you haven't sailed a regatta for a long time. But things are already going very well in many areas. We are building on that."

"I think Marseille is super cool!"

As a visiting sports and maths teacher at the Friedrichsort Community School, Malte Winkel takes note of his senior status in a new way on Mallorca when he meets younger sailors from the German Sailing Team, whom he teaches at home near Kiel. Parallel to training and regattas, his wife and foresailor Anastasiya is working on her master's thesis, which deals with the impact of the coronavirus on the Olympic Games in Japan. The native Ukrainian, who received German citizenship with her naturalisation certificate on 18 March 2021, is also heavily involved in the current refugee crisis.

Some of the 470 mixed teams have already gained their first impressions of the Olympic area. "I've already been there. With Philipp last year too," says Luise Wanser. "The German Sailing Team already has two permanent containers there. Early training there makes a lot of sense for us. I think Marseille is super cool. The Alps run out there, it's a bit mountainous, really beautiful. The islands make for an exciting area with shifting winds. Mistral winds often prevail and the islands have their influence. I can imagine that we will also be challenged outside the bay in the 470. That will be an open Mediterranean with nice waves..." Wanser now has her law degree in the bag and has registered for the state examination at the distance-learning university. In her new sailing team, the experienced skipper Philipp Autenrieth scores points not only as a sailor but also as a boat builder with "super expertise", says Wanser

Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugmann are the benchmark

At the three-day warm-up regatta for the Trofeo Princesa Sofía, the two Olympic participants Wanser and Winkel were able to easily pull away from the national competition with their respective new sailing partners, finishing sixth and seventh. They were followed by Dahnke/Cipra (13th) and Göttlich/Markfort (23rd). Click here for the results (please click!). The season will show whether and how often this pecking order will change in view of the many German candidates. Everyone agrees that the Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugmann are the benchmark of the class for the time being. They will be joined by the Austrians Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr, the three-time Opti World Champion Marco Gradoni and Alessandra Dubbini from Italy and the Swiss Yves Mermod and Maja Siegenthaler, who are other well-known teams that want to be successful in this new Olympic discipline. We can also expect to see more top teams from overseas over the course of the season. The revitalisation of 470 dinghy racing promises a lot of excitement for the remaining two and a half years of the long-running Olympic cycle and is also likely to bring a surprise or two