Olympic final: 470s for the last time for women and men: beaten under value, future in sight

For the finale of the Olympic regatta in Enoshima, the Fuji volcano finally appeared again in a crown of clouds and formed the spectacular backdrop for the historic final medal races in the men's and women's 470 fleets. For the last time, the men and women decided who would be the best at the Olympics - from 2024, the two-handed dinghy will be a mixed event. What was previously two Olympic disciplines will then become one.

The two German 470 Olympic starters have already announced new campaigns. The German 470 men had missed out on qualifying for these Games, but are in the starting blocks. But before the new GER mixed teams take off, Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel brought their Olympic debut to a stylish close one day after their team-mates' medal celebrations.

The crew from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein did not start the medal final of the best ten 470 sailors on Wednesday without thinking about their disastrous first day of the Olympic regatta. The burden of the double disqualification due to the foresailor's harness trousers being 200 grams too heavy could not be completely shed until the end, even though the 23-year-old helmswoman and her 27-year-old foresailor fought like lionesses every day anew to show "that we are better than our ranking shows", as Luise Wanser put it. At the finish line, the two sailors, who have only been in the same boat for just over a year and came sixth at the Olympics with second place in the medal race, embraced each other after their rollercoaster ride of emotions. Sixth place in a top-class Olympic field with two maximum penalties of 22 points has to be achieved first.

If you can do the maths and want to use the subjunctive mood, you can see it in the women's final results compared to the medal winners: If it hadn't been for the disqualifications, but the fifth and sixth places achieved on the water on day one, this crew would have at least scratched at the medals. However, infringements of the rules at the Olympics should be penalised (but perhaps not so severely), and the subjunctive is worth nothing in sport. The idea of what Wanser and Winkel would have been capable of and could still be capable of in the future in new team constellations with male team-mates is at least comforting.

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"I calculated every day what it would have been like without the disqualification," admits Luise Wanser candidly, "I needed that for my self-confidence. To know that I'm the best in the world." In fact, the crew, which was only newly formed in 2020, had set out to do more than just take part in these Olympic Games, and not just in their own eyes. The extremely ambitious women had trained more intensively than anyone else for a whole year. In many months, they were on the water for up to 28 days. Their Italian coach had expected the combination, which was hardly known internationally before the Olympics, to win a medal, as did other coaches who were able to observe Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel training in Italy. For example, French 470 coach Philippe Mourniac, who said before the start of the Olympic regatta: "I saw them in training. The two of them can be among the front runners here."

For well-known reasons, that didn't quite work out. But in the end, sixth place shows that the experts were right. After the final, Anastasiya Winkel commented briefly on the team's internal maths: "I think we would have come third today. Yesterday we were four points short of third place, and we got that today." The maths games remained theory - but a comforting and promising one for the future. Which is why both sailors were proud of themselves and their team before they have to split up again and form new mixed teams because the wheel of the Olympic sailing disciplines keeps turning. What remains is the realisation of Anastasiya Winkel: "We had a lot of emotions in the game, but remained professional and calm right to the end. That is the highest level of cooperation. That's what I want for the future too."

The "wish list" goes to her husband, because Anastasiya Winkel is planning an Olympic campaign with Malte Winkel. "He's the best helmsman and we want to give it a go together." Luise Wanser also wants to prove herself in the 470 mixed, already has a partner in her sights, but would first like to finish her studies in the next three months and then officially take off. Both women are likely to remain on the credit side of the German Sailing Team. Coach Riccardo de Felice has also done a great job in spurring the women on again and again after the low blow at the start and motivating them to perform at their best again.

At the end of the Olympic regatta in Japan, the 470 medals were won by others this time: The British Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre sailed to Olympic victory in the women's event. Poland's Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar won silver. Bronze went to France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz, who caused a scare and a lot of excitement shortly after the final with a protest against the two teams placed ahead of them, before the jury dismissed the protest against their opponents' alleged team sailing. After an agitated half hour, the placings achieved on the water remained the same.

In the men's 470, the top favourites Mat Belcher and Will Ryan from Australia came out on top ahead of the Swedes Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrøm and the Spaniards Jordi Xammar/Nico Rodriguez. The men provided some highly emotional Olympic moments after the decision: Spanish helmsman Jordi Xammar almost smashed the hull of his boat with his fist out of sheer joy as he repeatedly hammered on it in an exuberance of emotion. The Swedes lay blissfully on the blue carpet of the Olympic slipway for several minutes, and finally all six medallists embraced each other for a long time, warmly and so fairly that it was a wonderful advert for Olympic sailing.