2024 Olympic Games: The favourites and the Germans' chances

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49er women: Nothing to lose

Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze are not the obvious gold contenders in the women's skiff 49erFX at these Olympic Games. The Brazilians were unable to qualify their country for the Olympics at the first attempt. They narrowly missed out on the podium in fourth place at this year's World Championships. The duo were ranked sixth in the world rankings in July. However, they already have two Olympic gold medals to their name. No female sailor has ever won more gold medals at the Olympic Games. However, the British SailGP strategist Hannah Mills is the most successful female Olympic sailor since 1900, having also won gold twice (2021, 2016) and silver once (2012) in the women's 470.

Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze could oust them. In 2016, they sailed to their first Olympic victory in their native Guanabara Bay at the foot of the Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer statue. As the queens of Rio, they sent their fans into a nationwide sailing frenzy. Helmswoman Martine Grael, whose father Torben Grael won five Olympic medals in Starboat and Soling - including two golds - could even surpass her dad with three golds this Olympic summer. Like her father, Martine Grael has also sailed around the world. In 2017/2018, she was one of the helmsmen in the Dutch team AkzoNobel in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Together, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze now have the chance to become the most successful female sailors in Olympic history - if the Dutch world champions Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz and other big names such as Olympic champion and circumnavigator Tamara Echegoyen with Paula Barcelo let them. Hanna Wille and Marla Bergmann, who at 22 and 23 are a decade younger than many of their opponents, want to enter the showdown of the class giants with fresh vigour. The young women from Mühlenberger Segel-Club have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.

49er men: New pecking order

The same applies to Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club. Following the Olympic retirement of superstars such as America's Cup defenders and Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke and two-time bronze medallists Erik Heil/Thomas Plößel (NRV Olympic Team), others have stepped up in their 49er world. Spain's SailGP aces Diego Botin/Florian Trittel, the French world champions Erwan Fischer/Clément Pequin and the 2023 world champions Bart Lambriex/Floris van de Werken are also aiming for a medal, as are the Swiss SailGP helmsman Sebastian Schneiter with Arno de Planta and other teams that have moved up.

Ilca 7: The time is ripe for Philipp Buhl

Australian Ilca 7 dominator Matt Wearn wants to hold on to the Olympic gold he won in Enoshima. In the last year before the Olympics, however, the man accustomed to winning had to admit defeat to the rapidly rising Briton Michael Beckett more often than he would have liked. Michael Beckett, who three years ago in Japan was the defeated member of the British Olympic TV team, is currently number two in the world rankings. He won the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofia in the spring, where the world number one only finished fifth. Second behind Beckett was Philipp Buhl. The German world number three is in the game when it comes to the Olympic medals in Marseille.

Buhl was the man who inflicted a painful defeat on Wearn on his home turf in 2020 and snatched the World Championship crown from him. With himself and sparring partners Hermann Tomasgaard (2021 Olympic bronze medallist from Norway) and 2022 World Champion Jean-Baptiste Bernaz from France, the still dangerous two-time World Champion Pavlos Kontides (Cyprus) and New Zealander Tom Saunders, the tight circle of Marseille medal candidates in Ilca 7 is now complete. At the last major summit meeting, the World Championships in January this year, Wearn was in the lead. He was followed by Tomasgaard, Beckett and Buhl in fourth. The goodness in the broad Ilca 7 top and Buhl's third Olympic summit assault after 14th place in Rio de Janeiro and fifth place in Enoshima should ensure high tension in Marseille.

Ilca 6: Outsider chances

Parallel to the men, the two class kings Anne-Marie Rindom (Denmark) and Marit Bouwmeester (Netherlands) and other medal contenders will meet in the Ilca-6 women's event. 33-year-old Anne-Marie Rindom from Søllerød is the reigning Olympic and world champion. 36-year-old Marit Bouwmeester is a four-time world champion and has won silver (2012), gold (2016) and bronze (2021) at the Olympics. As the mother of a two-year-old daughter, she wants to fight for everything again at her fourth attempt. Anyone who knows her knows: Marit Bouwmeester is not satisfied with anything less than gold. The young mum, who was crowned European champion ten months after giving birth, describes the Olympic area as "very challenging", comparing it to the Rio area in 2016 and saying: "Only the most complete sailors will be able to win here."

Depending on the result, the Dutchwoman has a chance of becoming the most successful female sailor in Olympic history. To do so, Bouwmeester needs nothing less than her second Olympic victory. At the same time, she will have to see how Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze and other top sailors fare. Fierce competition threatens in the Ilca 6 from world number one Maria Erdi from Hungary, the strong Swiss Maud Jayet and the Belgian Emma Plasschaert, among others. Berlin's Julia Büsselberg will start with outsider chances, but has already proven that she can beat the greats in her discipline by finishing fifth at the 2021 World Championships.

Nacra-17: Italy's Olympic champions remain the benchmark

In the Nacra 17, the Italian high-flyers Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti are once again the measure of class. There is hardly anyone who would bet against another Olympic triumph for the America's Cup helmsman from Team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and his marvellous foresailor. Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer from the Kieler Yacht-Club will also be battling for the medals on two fast hulls. Will the fact that the German crew won Olympic bronze in the thrilling final in Enoshima three years ago be a motivator? Paul Kohlhoff says: "If you've won a medal, you want another one. But it has become even harder."

470s: Good prospects

The Olympic cards are being shuffled for the first time in the 470. The class is celebrating its mixed premiere on the stage under the five rings in the discipline that has been Olympic for men since 1976 and for women since 1988. The most promising candidates include the reigning Spanish world champions Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugmann, France's Camille Lecointre/Jérémie Mion, Great Britain's Vita Heathcote/Chris Grube, the 2023 world champions Keiju Okada/Miho Yoshioka from Japan, Sweden's Anton Dahlberg/Lovissa Karlsson and Austria's Lara Vadlau and Lukas Mähr. Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort (Württembergischer Yacht-Club/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee), who finished fourth at the World Championships, will be in contention for the medals.

Kiteboarding men: The exceptional talent Max Maeder

In 17-year-old Maximilian Maeder from Singapore, the new Olympic kiteboarders probably have the most dominant favourite across all ten Olympic sailing disciplines. The smart guy with a Swiss father has been winning for some time now. Far ahead of his age, the serial winner, who grew up speaking English, German, French and Mandarin in four languages, is regarded as the talent of the century.

Can anyone beat this teenager in the Bay of Marseille? Germany's Jannis Maus, who finished fifth at the World Championships and whose performance curve has been rising steadily over the past year, says with a smile: "Difficult! But maybe it's different at the Olympics and he's human after all?" Maus describes the strengths of the exceptional 95-kilo kiter Max Maeder as follows: "He is very focussed. When you talk to this 17-year-old, you get the feeling you're talking to a 40-year-old kite professor. He is mega broad, very, very mature, expresses himself in an extremely educated way. He's super easy to talk to. He's a machine on the water."

In contrast to the windsurfers, the new Olympic kiters will contest their final with the best four athletes, one or one of whom will remain without a medal. Jannis Maus says: "If I make it to the final, then I also want a medal. We prepared very intensively for this scenario in the last few weeks before the Olympics." The scenario could also include world number five Valentin Bontus. The Austrian and the German know each other well. Both want a medal at the Games of their lives.

Kiting women: Many female candidates

Daniela Moroz from the USA was the superstar of the female kiteboarders for a long time, but she has recently faltered, missing out on the final of the best four female kiters at this year's World Championships. The World Championship gold was secured by the outstanding Frenchwoman Lauriane Nolot ahead of Britain's Eleanor Aldridge and other Frenchwomen from the strongest women's national kite team in the world, only one of whom, Nolot, is allowed to compete at the Olympics. Switzerland's Elena Lengwiler, who finished fourth at the European Championships and is a former top ice hockey player and only started kitesurfing in 2019, is also considered a medal candidate. The Kiel power woman Leonie Meyer (NRV Olympic Team) - ten kilograms lighter than many of her opponents - will show off her strategic and tactical skills in the kiteboarding competition, especially in lighter winds.

IQ Foil men: Great chance of a medal

Sebastian Kördel from Radolfzell, part of the NRV Olympic Team, is one of the medal candidates in the iQFoil, another new Olympic event. The 1.91 metre tall windsurfing giant is heading to the summit meeting in the Bay of Marseille as the 2022 World Champion and 2023 Vice World Champion. The phase in which Sebastian Kördel had to put up with some setbacks at the beginning of the year and in the Olympic qualifiers and struggled technically has been overcome according to recent assessments and results at coach regattas.

The mix of former PWA stars and former Olympic RS:X windsurfers, who are now clashing in the new Olympic windsurfing discipline iQFoil, promises high tension on the boards in Marseille. Reigning Italian world champion Nicolo Renna, Polish world championship silver medallist Pawel Tarnowski, 2023 world champion Luuc van Opzeeland and Frenchman Nicolas Goyard are among the slightly larger group of hot medal contenders.

IQ Foil women: The final is the goal

In the women's windsurfing category, it is Israeli world champion Sharon Kantor and British runner-up Emma Wilson who have most strongly emphasised their claims to an Olympic medal this year. The 22-year-old Theresa "Resi" Steinlein (NRV Olympic Team) is the youngest athlete on the German national sailing team. The conspicuously good strategist is hoping to qualify for the final and says: "Then a lot is possible at the Olympics."

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