The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The men’s and women’s 470s lost their reserve day before their medal race due to schedule changes, but the wind gods gave them their own reserve day yesterday. Without a breath of wind, the 470s returned to shore with the standings unchanged, leaving the medal races to be contested today, alongside those of the skiff classes.

In the men’s 470, the top three are all but determined. The color of the medals, however, remain undetermined. Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marinec have lead the regatta from Day 1. They have consistently strong starts and upwind boatspeed that has put them in position to bring home the first Croatian gold medal in sailing. Nine points behind sit Greece’s Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis, who will have the most challenging medal race of the three contenders as they work to take the gold from Croatia while defending silver from Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan. Belcher and Ryan have nothing to lose, as they’ve secured a podium position. The only direction they can go is up. Expect to see these three teams very close to each other in the pre-start, with some match-racing tactics coming into play.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The women’s 470 fleet already has its champions — London 2012 silver medalists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark from Great Britain will win gold as long as they complete the race without penalties. They are 20 points ahead of New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, who bested the Brits in 2012 for London gold. Even with the Brit’s dominance, this will be the tightest race contested today. Aleh and Powrie are not secured any medals, with five other teams within striking distance of silver and one additional team able to win bronze. USA’s Annie Hager and Briana Provancha are 1 point behind the kiwis. The American 470 women are the USA’s final chance at a medal in Rio, as the men’s 470 team and both skiff teams are outside of podium position. The pressure may have been relieved by their teammate, Finn sailor Caleb Paine, bringing home a bronze medal on Tuesday, the first medal for the USA in sailing since 2008. Haeger and Provancha will have to defend their podium position from France’s Camille Lecointre and Hélène Defrance who are just 1 point behind them. If they also go on the offensive, they could steal the silver away from the Kiwis. Japan, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Brazil all have a chance at a podium position based on points today as well.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The men’s 49er skiff class also already has its gold medalists in New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. As expected, the Kiwis controlled the class through the entire quad, winning every 49er regatta they entered after London, until just a few weeks before the Games where they came third in the 49er South American Championship. There was no sign of any defeat when they arrived in Rio, starting the regatta off with two race wins and maintaining the overall lead from there. The kiwis are also teammates on 2017 America’s Cup challenger Emirates Team New Zealand, but have stepped back here and there from their roles on Emirates to focus on their 49er campaign.

Likewise, third-placed 49er team Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen are also America’s Cup challenger teammates, but on Artemis Racing. Australia’s Outteridge and Jensen have taken less time off from the AC campaign, and their results have shown it. They’re currently in third, behind Germany’s Erik Heil and Thomas Plossel, and 10 points ahead of Great Britain’s Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Alain Sign. All three could win silver or bronze, and one will be left off the podium. Fletcher-Scott and Sign will have to have to finish at least five boats ahead of Australia to get on the podium.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The women’s 49erFX skiff has four possible medal contenders, and none of the podium places are secure. The top-three boats in this class are tied with 46 points each. Spain’s Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez and Berta Betanzos Moro are in the lead with the most first place finishes in the preliminary regatta, but Brazil’s Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze and Denmark’s Jena Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen also have 46 points, and New Zealand’s Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech have 47. The rest of the fleet is too far out of contention. Grael and Kunze are the final medal hopes for Brazil in sailing.

The Kiwis have nothing to lose in the FX, so we can expect some aggressive tactics from them today. The rest of the top of the fleet will be simultaneously defending their podium place while watching the other two leaders in hopes of climbing up another step. Though the 470 women’s race will have more contenders, the medal race for the 49erFX will be the most exciting with the combination of speed and stakes sure to produce excellent races.

Live 2D and 3D tracking is available for all races at sailing.org.

Most medal races are broadcast or streamed. Check out our story How to Watch for information on each country’s broadcast rights.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The athletes in Rio arrive to the Marina Da Gloria between 10 and 11 am, go through the security check-point and head down to the boat park. With racing scheduled to start no earlier than 1 pm local time, it gives them just enough time to get into the competitive mindset, repair any equipment and have a meeting with their coaching staff before they head out to the racecourse.

Rio, sometimes, has other plans. Many race days have light and hot — normal for Rio in August, but not ideal for wind-powered sports. The sea breeze generally fills in around 1 or 2 pm, or sometimes later, meaning the athletes are regularly postponed either on land or water for an hour or more before racing begins. Even when it does, there have been a handful of abandoned races that throw off the schedule of routine for the Olympians.

It’s important these athletes know how to play the waiting game. They could be delayed for any amount of time, or be called to compete at any time, so they have to keep their minds sharp without exhausting themselves. Top athletes from around the world shared their perspectives on staying mentally sharp when the conditions are dull.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The post Olympics Morning Launch, Day 10 — Keeping Their Cool appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

In preliminary events leading up to the 2008 Beijing Games, the Olympic sailing format changed to include medal races in the fleet racing format, introducing a final, double-points race to determine the final standings for each fleet. This introduction created a need for a new kind of strategy, different from fleet racing to accomodate the higher stakes.

US Sailing High Team’s Performance Director Charlie McKee never sailed in an Olympic medal race himself (he won bronze in Seoul in 1988 and bronze in Sydney in 2000), but he now assists the American coaching staff in a number of ways, including strategizing approaches for medal race competition.

The first part of medal race tactics to understand is that the medal race is a culmination of the weeks’ sailing, not a clean slate, so sailors can go into the medal race with no mathematical possibility to medal. They can also go in with a guaranteed podium place or a guaranteed medal, based on point differentials between them at the people above or below. For example, Great Britain’s Giles Scott secured gold in the Finn class before sailing the medal race today by holding a 24-point lead over the next-best finisher after preliminary racing. Even if he DNFs, the maximum points he can get is 22. The only exception is if there is a gross violation involving unsportsmanlike conduct, where the jury is able to relegate an athlete who displayed extremely bad behavior (think, assaulting another athlete on-course) can be relegated to 10th place overall, regardless of points.

For sailors who haven’t guaranteed the gold, the medal race is the pinnacle of their Olympic campaign, and requires a completely different strategy than the preliminary fleet racing. “At that point, it’s all points-driven,” says Mckee. “You look at if the sailor can medal at all based on points, if they can move up or down through the medals, or if they move down if they could lose the medal, and then form a plan from there.”

The strategy starts with a plan based on the other sailors in the medal race. “We figure out who they need to be looking out for, who they need to pass, and we also figure out who might be looking to pass them,” he says. “Then, you consider the other boats, which two boats might be looking only at each other, and not at you, and how that effects your strategy.”

Once that’s figured out, the sailor and coaching staff make a race plan. “ We make a general plan about where to start, what side of the course is favored, if they’ll be able to get around the fleet if they start on one particular side.” McKee points out that in the medal race, plans have to be flexible, and because of this the sailors have to fully understand and contribute to the plan. “They have to be able to make decisions out there, as things always change,” he says. “You can’t just tell them ‘do this and you’ll wind a medal.’ It doesn’t work like that in sailing.”

2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro

There are four medal races scheduled for today— the Lasers and Laser Radials, rescheduled from yesterday, and today’s originally scheduled Finn and Nacra races. All will take place on the Pao de Acucar course. The Radials are the first, scheduled to begin at 1300, though the sea breeze generally hasn’t been filling until closer to 1430, so we will likely see a delay there. They’ll be followed by the Lasers, then the Finns, and finally the Nacras. If the weather pattern from this week is consistent, it’s unlikely we will see all of these races today, but if there’s anything we’ve learned about Rio since the regatta started last week, it’s that there is no such thing as consistent conditions here.

The 470s were scheduled for a lay day but after completing no races yesterday will race on the outside course today to complete their preliminary series before tomorrow’s medal race, and the skiffs will have their final day of preliminary racing before a scheduled layday tomorrow.

Live tracking of all races will be available at sailing.org. The medal races are broadcast, so check your local provider for a broadcast schedule.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Olympic regatta is the pinnacle of sailing in the ten classes that compete here, but it’s also the pinnacle of race officiating. The task of keeping the Olympic regatta running smoothly and fairly falls mostly to Principal Race Officer Nino Shmueli and his six race committees.

The venue in Rio has seven possible race circles on which competition can be scheduled. Only six can be in use at once due to the race committees, but with reserve days built into the schedule this has yet to be a conflict.

A schedule of racing, including courses, was published in January. Over the first week of regatta, this schedule basically went out the window as weather variables forced Shmueli to move classes that were scheduled to be inside to the outside courses, and vice versa. “The changes we make to the course assignments are to provide fair and good sailing,” says Shmueli. “When you are taking in considerations like class wind limits and course structure, and mix it with weather reports, we often have to change the course areas from the original schedule.”

Shmueli follows a few basic guidelines, but otherwise the course assignments are up to his and his team’s discretion to alter. The goal is to have every class sail once on the Pao de Acucar course before the medal race round in order to get both practice and TV screen time, and sail one day on one of the courses outside the bay, to provide variation

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

After racing each day, the race officers hold a meeting to which Shmueli brings his proposed course assignments for the next day. Besides weather, they take into account the media (broadcast is only from the Pao or Escola Naval courses), the class wind limits, rules and race structure (trapezoid versus windward-leeward).

Rio’s weather can be unpredictable, which is what makes it such a challenging venue. Those who medal here will be the best all-around sailors in every variable situation. “The sailor usually arrives in the morning and knows that he may not sail on the course that was published on the schedule. But, sailing is sailing,” says Shmeli. “Sailing outside the bay there are different currents, winds and waves than inside the bay with the current, countercurrents, and wind shadows. It’s another strategy, and they have to be prepared.”

The only unchangeable is the medal race course: all medal races will be sailed on the Pao de Acucar, or Sugarloaf course, right off the spectator area on Flamengo beach and the course that has the best broadcast capabilities. If on a medal race day the wind is unfavorable to sail on that course, Shmueli says the race will be bumped to the next day, either held at a different time so as not to conflict with the class originally scheduled for the next day, or by shifting the entire schedule a day later, depending on what the race committee can accomplish with the conditions.

Fortunately for Shmueli and his team, the assignment adjustments haven’t prevented any racing, and today’s medal races scheduled on the Pao course look as though they’ll go ahead on schedule. The Lasers will be racing at 1300 local, and the Radials at 1400.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

In the Lasers, Tonci Stipanovic has secured a gold or silver for Croatia, but the color will be determined today by his performance and that of Australia’s Tom Burton, the only sailor in position to take the top spot. Burton is also assured a medal, so we can expect to see some match racing between these two today for the lead. New Zealand’s Sam Meech will look to hold on to his third place position, but will have to defend from Brazil’s Robert Scheidt, France’s Jean Baptiste Bernaz and Great Britain’s Nick Thompson. “I think it’s a race where you have to be more aggressive, because there are a lot of points in the game and there are some guys who have the same points as me, and so the same perspective,” says Scheidt about the medal race. “I think it’s going to be quite an interesting race, because a few guys behind have nothing to lose, while the top two guys are fighting for the gold. It will be interesting.”

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

For the Radials, leader Marit Bouwmeester, from the Netherlands, is assured a medal, but it could be anywhere on the podium. Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom is just behind her and could make a final surge. Rindom has stayed steadily atop the fleet since the second day of racing where a DSQ put a bruise on her excellent score sheet. Ireland’s Annalise Murphy is in a similar situation to the last games, where she finished without a medal in fourth. Murphy led through the first four days of the London Games, which is strikingly similar to her top of the pack lead here in Rio, before losing it all in the medal race. Murphy will be looking to right that wrong and secure herself a spot on the podium. She’s laid back in her starts but aggressive on the beats, so watch for spectacular passing from Murphy.

Right behind the Irishwoman is Belgium’s Evi Van Acker, whose illness made headlines this week when the Belgian Olympic Committee blamed the Bay water as the source of an illness which was sapping her energy. Following a rest day where Van Acker was treated for her sickness, she came back strong and climbed back into fourth place and silver or bronze medal contention. The Radials had another rest day yesterday, so she could come back even stronger.

The 470 men and women sail their final day of preliminary racing today. There’s a chance that Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic could secure the gold today, but Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan could defend enough to keep the medal race open. The women’s fleet has no sure bets, but today will certainly separate the top and bottom halves of who will be the medal race fleet.

Live tracking is available for all races at sailing.org, and the Laser and Radial medal races will be broadcast/streamed live. Check your local provider’s listing and website for information on the stream.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

When Michael Phelps’s swim cap tore before the start of the final leg of the 4×200 freestyle relay on Thursday night, the media fawned over the drama. Phelps was loaned a spare cap by a teammate and went on to secure the gold medal for Team USA. No harm done, except perhaps to the sponsors of the shredded cap, Phelps showed that his gear made no impact on his ability to win the race.

For sailors, this is far from the reality. No amount of practice can prevent a bad finish as a result of equipment failure. They not only have to keep their bodies in peak condition, but their boats as well.

When breakages happen, it can sometimes be a matter of luck that the spare part is readily available. Caleb Paine was fortunate that, when he lost a mast chock during the first day of racing, his coach had a spare on his rib and they were able to replace it and continue racing, costing him only a few points to his overall score.

Other times, when equipment breaks it can put a team at a serious disadvantage for the rest of the regatta. The female German 470 team, Annika Bochmann and Marlene Steinherr will be sailing with an old mast for the rest of the week after their mast broke in half and their jib was damaged in a capsize, forcing them to DNF. They had already broken their best mast in training, and now have lost their spare, forcing them to compete with subpar equipment for the two remaining days of preliminary racing and, if they can climb back up the fleet, the medal race. They currently sit in 19th in a 20-boat fleet, and 24 points outside of a medal race spot with two races to earn it.

The Nacra fleet has been plagued with the most issues. In the opening race, the French team, Billy Besson and Marie Riou, came to a complete stop while fixing an unspecified issue with their rudder. On the same leg, the Brazilian team, Samuel Albrecht and Isabel Swan had a mainsheet failure that cost them a number of places in the fleet.

The next day, the American Nacra 17 team was battling its own equipment frustrations. Skipper Bora Gulari‘s trapeze wires were severing at the top of the mast. “You’re done with the race when that happens,” says crew Louisa Chafee. “It’s not something you can fix quickly. When it’s blowing 15-18 knots and your skipper is unable to provide leverage, you can’t do much.”

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

When they finally fixed the issue, they came back to finish fourth in the final day of racing before their reserve day. They returned Saturday to log a 9, 2 and an 8 on their scorecard.

“We reached our point where we said enough was enough and we needed to just go out there and perform how we know how,” says Chafee. “We know how to put down good results. We’ve just been hit with some bad luck. Luckily, our luck has changed and we made good decisions.”

Reserve days are built into the schedule not only give sailors a chance to rest their bodies, but also to repair their boats. With the exception of the Laser, Laser Radial and RS:X, sailors bring their own equipment to the Games. This also means they must bring their own replacement parts, and repairs rely entirely on the sailor and their support team. World Sailing’s team of judges inspects all repairs, especially if it involves replacing a piece of equipment that was previously approved, such as a boom or sail. Finn sailor Jonas Hogh-Christensen blewout the outhaul clew ring on his mainsail on Wednesday, and had to have the repaired sail measured and approved by World Sailing before being allowed back on the water on Thursday.

In the classes in which sailors compete in provided boats, the repairs are in the hands of the manufacturers on site, who examine the problem when the boat is back ashore and repair or replace the equipment to meet the same standards as the rest of the fleet. No major equipment failures have been reported in these classes yet. The RS:X fleets have their medal races today, and all their equipment has been in quarantine since last night. The RS:Xs will be inspected immediately before they head out to the Pao de Acucar course for their medal race.

The Lasers and Radials have a reserve rest day today, providing a break before their medal races on Monday. The skiffs are also off today, after two solid days of racing inside the bay.

The 470s return from a day off for racing on Copacabana, on the outside. When this fleet sailed on the outside course, Niteroi, on Thursday, they returned beaten and battered from the swell and breeze. Today should prove to be gentler. On the men’s side, the Croatians Sime Fantela and Igor Mareinc will be looking to solidify a lead over Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan. Belcher and Ryan had a bad first race on Wednesday that gave Fantela and Marenic an edge, but have since stayed in the single digits. Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Chris Grube have some catching up to do, but with four races to go in the preliminary round it’s entirely possible.

For the women, Great Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark hold the lead for now, but the fleet is tightly packed at the top. Japan, France, USA, Slovenia and New Zealand all have a shot at stealing the lead from the London silver medalists in the next four preliminary races. USA’s Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha have improved each day on the water, and the upward trend could lift them into gold medal contention ahead of Wednesdays big race.

The Finns will race their final preliminary day, with a rest day scheduled for tomorrow and the medal race on Tuesday, with the Nacras on the same schedule. After day one, Great Britain’s Giles Scott seized the lead, but will have no chance to rest on his laurels today. Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar, the youngest in the class, has stayed right behind Giles despite some tactical errors and poor starts that caused some higher fleet finishes. Australia’s Jake Lilley rallied after a 16th and UFD on day one to climb back into third and solidly into medal contention, if he can keep his scores up today.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

In the Nacras, France’s Billy Besson and Marie Riou suffered the first day of racing, due in part to an Besson’s cronic back injury. Yesterday they came back with force with a second followed by two bullets, but still sit in 7th overall. They’ll need a repeat of their day of dominance to climb back into contention for gold, and will need to avoid disaster today to get to the medal race. Australian cousins Lisa Darmanin and Jason Waterhouse, who lead the fleet going into the final day, were relieved that the French were back in fighting form. “They’re the best in the world and that’s who we want to be sailing against here,” says Darmanin. So far, the Aussies have managed to stay ahead, but had less impressive results yesterday, making them vulnerable to other well performing boats in the fleet.

Live tracking for all races is available at sailing.org. If you’re able to access your local broadcast or stream feeds, the medal races are on the TV courses.

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If you want to appeal to the Brazilian public and tourists, hold your event on the beach. Luckily for World Sailing and the Olympic sailing organizers, the Marina da Gloria, home to Olympic sailing, is directly adjacent to Flamengo Beach. The medal racecourse is in the shallow waters just off the beach, making the sandy shores the place to be for Olympic sailing fans.

As the boats zip past, factions of the crowd cheer. High speed skiffs like the 49er were made for this type of spectator sailing. The New Zealand contingent waves their black and silver flags for Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, while Italian superfans close by, faces painted green and red, shout and clap as Ruggero Tita and Pietro Zucchetti have a great start. In the big swell coming in from the Bay today, the younger fans dart up and down the beach avoiding the spray of the waves.

All week, they’ve come out in droves, rain or shine, to cheer on their favorite sailors. Greatest in number sport the blue, green and yellow of the Brazilian flag — cheering on local favorites Robert Scheidt, Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, and others, depending on the day.

Organizers have wisely made the beach zone interactive, as postponements have delayed two days of racing so far. With shops and food stalls, spectators can spend the whole day on the sand. World Sailing set up four display boats — a Laser, a Finn, a 470 and a 49er — on the grass behind the beach for spectators to examine up close. A jumbotron sits at one end of the beach to bring the action even closer. Flamengo beach even has its own set of Olympic rings for photo ops.

Security at the beach is no joke, with members of the Force Nationale and police at every entrance, and metal detectors and x-ray machines at every entrance. The first day of racing saw a few controlled detonations of unattended luggage after hours, but nothing suspect was discovered. Since then, Flamengo beach has been the idyllic venue that World Sailing was hoping for when Rio was tapped to host the Games.

Check out some of our favorite photos from sailing’s biggest fans:

In the beachside spotlight today are the Laser and Laser Radial, each scheduled to race one race on the Pao course and one on Niteroi across the bay. This is the final preliminary series for the dinghies (save the Finn) before medal races on Monday. In the Radial, reigning gold medalist Lilly Xu is all but out of contention with two DSQs yesterday, one for a port starboard conflict with Netherland’s Marit Bouwmeester, and the other a windward leeward conflict with Turkey’s Nazli Donertas. If Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom can maintain her consistency, she’ll be in shouting distance of gold.

In the Laser, all eyes are on Brazil’s Robert Scheidt after his seemingly miraculous comeback from high 30s to 4th in the day’s only race. Scheidt vaulted himself to second overall in the fleet before the last day of preliminary racing, setting himself up for a potential podium finish.

The 470s are enjoying a rest day, while the Nacras will be racing on the outside Copacabana course. The sea swell that tested the 470s and Lasers in the past two days has died down to 2-4 feet, but the breeze is forecasted to be more consistent and better than the shifty stuff they’ve been dealing with inside. The 49ers and 49erFXs head into their second day of inside racing, while the Finns have been moved from the outside to the innermost course, Ponte.

The medal races, to be held on the Pao de Acucar course, will begin Sunday with the RS:X. There’s no doubt that these boardsailers will have the support of the fans. They’re close enough to hear the cheers from shore, an experience which few of these sailors have had before.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Before the Olympic regatta began in Rio, the teams that had spent their quad training here continuously reiterated the importance of knowing the complex current patterns in Guanabara Bay. However, in the first four full days of racing in Rio, the current has yet to make a significant impact on competition. Instead, it’s the wind that has been the main focus — unpredictable, shifty and ultimately as light as predicted. It’s a game of calling the puffs, not calling the current lines.

Tide maps of Guanabara Bay from 3 pm (mid-race schedule and about an hour after maximum ebb) on Thursday, August 11 show a current of a measly 0.91 knots at the point shown below, which World Sailing’s Malcolm Page identified as the location of the most concentrated current in the bay. Note: Tidetech.org has some great models of the area available to the public.

Without any serious current on the racecourses, the game has been all about staying in the pressure and calling shifts, something the leaders have been excelling in. However, that all could change over the next couple of days. American 470 sailor Briana Provancha points out that Rio is currently in a neap tide, and the moon is building to full, so the current is going to become more of a factor over the next days of racing and certainly through the medal events.

The first inklings that the current is starting to build back up and create an even bigger tactical challenge appeared on the Copacabana course yesterday, where Australian Finn sailor Jake Lilley described the course as “one sided.” The weak ebbing tide created an adverse current on one side of the course. “You basically had to sail from one corner to the top mark,” says Lilley. “It made it a grind to the top…it was just a drag race.”

On Friday, the Laser and Laser Radial are slated to sail on the Copacabana course, where Lilley says he saw the first current variations of the week.

The skiffs finally get their turn on the water for their first day of racing in Rio, scheduled for the Pao de Acucar and Ponte courses. On the men’s side, Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and New Zeleand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are heavily favored for gold and silver, but they’ll be duking it out over the regatta for that top position. For anyone else in the fleet, it’ll be a feat to get ahead of these two teams for the top spot.

The 49er FX will make its Olympic debut today, with hometown heroes Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze leading the favorites. Being a new class, like the Nacra, almost every team is a contender as a possible medal. The Brazilians have performed the most consistently at the top of the fleet in championships and events through the quad, but couldn’t pull off a podium finish at the 2016 Worlds. Tamara Echegoyen and Berta Bentanzos, from Spain, will look to build on that title here in Rio.

Racing starts at 1300 local time and live tracking is available on World Sailing’s Olympic website.

The post Olympics Morning Launch, Day 5 — Current Events appeared first on Sailing World.

When the curtain closed on the 2012 London Olympics, Swiss Laser Radial sailor Nathalie Brugger was about to throw in the towel. She finished 14th overall, a disappointing step down from her 6th place finish in Beijing. Tired of the Radial and ready to retire, her motivation for Olympic sailing was renewed when she discovered the speed challenge that is the Nacra 17 catamaran. She stepped into the unknown and made the transition from dinghy to multihull.

Another Swiss team member, Matias Buhler was coaching sailor Richard Stauffacher in the RS:X in London. An accomplished sailor himself, when the mixed discipline was announced for 2106, Buhler and Brugger teamed up immediately. “We’re both not catamaran sailors so we had to re-learn every skill,” says Brugger.

For Brugger, the high-speed catamaran was just the spark she needed to reignite her sailing passion. “The technique is completely different than the laser,” she says. The challenge of the speed and quick decision-making brought new elements into her sailing career that she hadn’t experienced before.

Brugger’s biography on her team website claims she is the most successful and experienced female sailor in Switzerland, with championship titles dating back to 2000, but almost all of her experience was in singlehanded sailing. Her biggest adjustment, she says, was learning how to sail with another person on board. Communication was a key part of their training. “We think completely differently and speak completely differently,” says Brugger. “It was like learning a new language.”

Trapezing was also a steep learning curve for the pair; while Buhler had coached 470s, he had not mastered the technique himself. “Coaching and doing are two completely different things,” he says.

The team embraces the less stable platform the Nacra provides, and the high speeds they can reach when the breeze is up. “It’s the future of sailing,” says Brugger. “It’s exciting to be a part of it, to learn something completely new and different. This is the best way to finish my Olympic career on a high note.”

In the first ever Nacra 17 Olympic Race, Buhler and Brugger certainly did enter at a peak. They came out of the first beat with a slight lead on the fleet, were back in the pack more than once, and while their Singaporean competition, Justin Liu and Denise Lim, caught them in a dying breeze on the final downwind leg, the Swiss came out on top in a photo-finish for first. “We know that this is just the start of the regatta,” says Buhler. “We’re satisfied with the start but we will have our mind on the coming days.”

The Nacras were slated to race on the Copacanaba course today, but they’ve been moved to Ponte because of the building breeze which will provide the speed and challenge that Brugger and Buhler have embraced as multihull converts. Racing starts at 1300 local time.

The RS:X fleets have also been moved to an inside course, Escola Naval, for the same reason.The men and women’s 470 will hold their third and fourth races today on the Niteroi course, further outside the bay than their circle yesterday in hopes of providing more steady conditions to the fleet.

The Lasers and Radials are enjoying a reserve day. American sailor Paige Railey says she’ll enjoy some downtime to relax and get her body ready for the final two days of preliminary racing.

Live tracking is available for all races at sailing.org.

The post Olympics Morning Launch, Day 4 – From Monohull to Multihull appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Before the start of the Olympic Regatta in Rio, Julio Alsogaray’s name never came up as a class or medal favorite. Yet here he is, going into the third day of racing in the Laser at the top of the fleet with some of the most consistent results thus far.

It’s his strategy that has brought him here and taken him to the top early in the Games. The Argentinian focuses on the starts, making an effort to stay out of the cluster of boats and get off the line as clean as possible. In a fleet of 46, staying clear is a feat.

“To me, this is the most important part of the race,” says Alsogaray through a translator. “I keep the focus on myself and my boat, getting a good start.” The rest of the race will follow with clean air and boat speed, he says.

Rio is Alsogaray’s third Olympics, after a seventh place finish in Beijing and eleventh in London. He said that he is more prepared for this Olympics than ever before. He’s calm, cool and collected and isn’t intimidated by the large fleet size —he plays his own game, which so far has paid off in spades.

As a part of the largest men’s class, if he can maintain his consistency in the top portion of the results he will have a chance to medal. “The scores in this class will be very high [cumulatively] at the end of the week,” he says. “In the end, consistency will be the winner.”

The Lasers will compete in two more races today with a rest day following on Thursday. In today’s bigger breeze, if Alsogaray’s starts are as strong as they’ve been since Monday, he’ll be in a good position for the final days of preliminary racing.

The Nacra 17s and 470s begin racing today. In the Nacra, the regatta is France’s to lose, as Billy Besson and Marie Riou have won all four world championships this quad. They have the target on their backs, but a chronic back injury has slowed their training and could be the chink in their armor. Lisa Darmanin and Jason Waterhouse, from Australia, were right behind the French at the world championship in 2015 and placed third in 2014, and alsowon the test event in 2015, so their track record in Guanabara Bay could give them the edge over the French.

Australia and New Zealand have had a gold-medal run in the men and women’s 470, respectively, since Bejing in 2008. Australia’s Mat Belcher and Will Ryan will sail their first Olympics together, though Belcher is a returning gold medalist from London (with then-partner Malcom Page). They’ll be fending off Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic and Great Britain’s Luke Patience and Chris Grube who all have a solid chance at gold. The first day of racing we can expect to see these three teams perform well on the Escola Naval course. The first two days of racing for the 470s are on two of the most challenging racecourses here in Rio, so any weaknesses will be exposed early on.

For the women, 2015 test event winners Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha will be looking to unseat Australia’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie and Great Britian’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, London’s gold and silver medalists respectively. “We’re a bit older and wiser now,” says Clark on her return with Mills. “Our focus will definitely be on staying calm under lots of pressure, and then delivering a performance that we wouldn’t deliver at any other regatta outside of the Olympics. Hannah and I are well-practiced with pressure.” Haeger and Provancha are two of Team USA’s strongest medal candidates, and they’re incredibly well-versed in the conditions in Rio having spent more time here than any other team, they say. The first day of racing is a chance for them to solidify their position among class veterans.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Finn class starts racing today on the Pao de Acucar course. Perhaps the trickiest of the courses, US sailor Caleb Paine says the gold medal in this class will come down to the best overall sailor across all conditions. The Pao course is shifty and the current whips around in a semi-circle. “The inside courses are really challenging and you have to make sure your head is outside of the boat,” says Paine.

The forecast is for 8-10 knots from the SSE, and on the Pao course this can spell major shifts. The Finns will really need to keep their heads out of the boat, not only for the current and wind but also debris. The RS:X sailors were on this course yesterday, and a small number had issues: France’s Pierre Le Coq caught a plastic bag on his fin and had to jump his board out of the water to clear it, and Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini hit a log that required her to get in the water to clear.

The RS:X fleets will be on their second day, so Nick Dempsey will look to extend his commanding lead. Yesterday was a stellar day for Great Britain’s board sailer, with two bullets and one second place finish behind London 2012 gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe.

France’s Charline Picon had the same scorecard as Dempsey and similarly will be looking to extend. On her heels is Russia’s Stefaniya Elfutina and Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini. Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw had a disappointing first day, but her past Olympic experience could help her focus and bounce back from a slow start. She currently sits in 10th in the women’s fleet.

In the Radials, today and the third day will be indicative if the Netherland’s Marit Bouwmeester can hold onto her lead through the rest of the week. If anyone can jump ahead, it could be Denmark’s young Anne-Marie Rindom or USA’s Paige Railey who are known for their endurance. China’s Lily Xu fell deep into the fleet as the result of an infringement protest yesterday, so she’ll have her work cut out for her if she wants to climb back to the top. Without the protest she was in the lead, so if she can keep up her strong performance and stay ahead of the fleet’s strongest, she could bounce back. There’s no room for error with that 38 on her scorecard.

The men’s Laser class is such a mix of results that the second set of races will be vital in sussing out who the leaders will be over the coming days of the regatta. Croatia’s Tonci Sipanovic and Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray both net six points and hold the lead, but the rest of the fleet isn’t far behind.

The Lasers and Radials will be sailing on the Ponte course, which has the most consistent breeze of the inside tracks. Day 2 will be an opportunity for the more physical athletes to showcase their endurance. Tactics will still play a major factor, but at Ponte the current and wind are even across the course.

Who To Watch

Great Britain’s Giles Scott has won the last three Finn world championships. On the heels of his countryman, Ben Ainsle’s, dominance, this will be Scott’s first Olympics, but he’s notoriously calm under pressure and with so much past success the novelty shouldn’t be a factor. The British have won the Finn class since Atlanta in 1996, so the real surprise here will be if Scott doesn’t take a lead and medal.

France’s Jonathan Lobert tends to perform better in breeze, so the inside courses could be a challenge for him. If he’s able to pull off some good results inside, when the Finns head to the outside course on Wednesday he could pull well ahead in the fleet. In reality, there are contenders deep into the Finn fleet, including USA’s Caleb Paine, New Zealand’s Josh Junior, Australia’s Jake Lilley, Denmark’s Jonas Hogh-Christensen and Croatia’s Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

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