ISAF President Draws Equipment For Olympic Games

ISAF President Göran PETERSSON completed the random draw for the allocation of the supplied equipment at the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition.

The supply of equipment and the equipment draw is one of many tasks the International Sailing Federation will undertake in the run up to the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition in Qingdao as part of its role “to assume the responsibility for the technical control and direction of their sports at the Olympic Games”, as defined by the Olympic Charter.

The draw for supplied equipment allocates the individual items of equipment (the boat, the sails and the spars) to each nation competing at the Olympic Sailing Competition. The draw is completely random and was completed by ISAF President Göran PETERSSON during a recent visit to the ISAF Secretariat.

Jason SMITHWICK, Head of the ISAF Technical and Offshore Department, said, “The equipment draw is all about keeping the Games as fair as possible. It’s all done completely at random and it was a great opportunity to have the ISAF President on hand to complete the process.”

Of the 11 sailing events at the 2008 Olympic Games, four will be contested in supplied equipment, meaning the competitor is allocated their boats, sails, spars etc. upon arrival at the event instead of bringing his or her own equipment to the event. The supplied equipment consists of the RS:X windsurfer used for both the Men’s and Women’s Windsurfer events and the Laser and Laser Radial dinghies used for the Men’s One Person Dinghy and Women’s One Person Dinghy events respectively.

In these four strict ‘one-design’ events, the equipment given to the athletes is all made to the same specification and tolerances at the same factory. In the other seven sailing events, the equipment belongs to the athletes themselves.

One of the big differences between the Olympic Sailing Competition and other regattas is the look of the boats themselves. Each qualified nation can have only one boat representing them in each event and from 2000 onwards ISAF introduced a policy of each boat carrying the flag of its nation on its sail, firstly making the identification of each boat far simpler than spotting a sail number and secondly creating a spectacular sight on the water.

Following on from the equipment draw, the selected Laser sails will now be printed with the appropriate nation’s flag and “look of the Games”. The RS:X sails will have the appropriate application of nation’s flags and “look of the Games”.

More information on the equipment and classes to be used at the 2008 Olympic Sailing Competition can be found on the ISAF Olympic microsite www.sailing.org/olympics.