The battle for the 10th Olympic medal: The mixed offshore alternatives: three proposals in the running

The battle for the tenth Olympic medal for 2024 is entering the pre-decisive phase: after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked for alternative proposals during the ongoing review of the mixed offshore sailing discipline originally proposed by the World Sailing Federation, the first preparatory round in the search for suitable alternatives under the umbrella of the World Sailing Federation has been completed.

The World Sailing Federation received 15 proposals following its call, many of them multiple times. National member associations, class associations, committee chairs and the board itself were invited to submit their ideas. The complete list of all 15 proposals is available on the World Sailing homepage (www.sailing.org) here published. Following a preliminary analysis by the World Sailing Board and a comparison with the demanding IOC requirements, a short list of three proposals was drawn up. None of the other twelve proposals, including for example Starboat Mixed or Mixed Match Racing with two people on a keelboat, appeared to World Sailing's Executive Board to be strong enough to fulfil the demanding IOC requirements.

So what idea has the potential to replace the new discipline of mixed offshore, which the IOC clearly does not favour, before the planned premiere in 2024? While the mixed offshore sailors who have been training around the world for more than a year now are trembling, others are hoping for a last-minute chance. The following three alternative proposals have been approved for closer scrutiny by the relevant World Sailing Committees and for the final vote in the Council:

1. ONE KITE DISCIPLINE BECOMES TWO: The proposal envisages splitting the kite mixed event previously planned for 2024 into a women's and a men's competition. This step would be the easiest way to secure the tenth medal with an even lower number of athletes (compared to the calculation model with mixed offshore). Boat sailing would give up another medal to board sailing.
2. BACK TO THE FUTURE IN THE 470: The proposal is to retain the current division of one women's and one men's discipline in the 470 instead of the mixed variant planned for 2024, which has long been practised by athletes. An ostensibly easy step, but one that would come at the expense of those who have been forming mixed teams since 2020 and have long been training intensively.
3. A SINGLE-HANDED DINGHY FOR A MIXED EVENT: The introduction of a new mixed competition in the Laser Radial, which would then even be represented twice as a boat class because it remains a women's single-handed discipline. The idea: two boats from one nation, each crewed by a woman and a man, sail against two boats from another country. The team with the last boat to finish loses the race. A "round robin round" (each team against each other), quarter and semi-finals as well as a duel for gold and silver and a small final for bronze would be planned.

The World Sailing Committees will examine and discuss these three proposals on 10 and 11 May during the semi-annual meeting of the World Sailing Federation and then submit their proposals to the World Sailing Board. The final decision on which alternative proposals are to be submitted to the IOC for the Mixed Offshore discipline, which is apparently difficult to implement there, will be made on 14 May after a vote in the World Sailing Council. The plan is to then submit two alternative proposals in the preferred order to the IOC before the deadline of 26 May.