Final Day Jeopardy

Not only have the new foiling classes increased the speed of Olympic sailing, they’re also bringing more radical ideas to race formats and finals.

Since Beijing 2008, the 10-boat Medal Race has been the finals format for Olympic competition. At the time it was seen as controversial, the double-points non-discardable Medal Race seen as skewing the competition unfairly in favour of final-day fortunes in a sport that had rewarded week-long consistency. Now the Medal Race is part of the furniture. That’s how all the boat classes – the ILCA 6 and ILCA 7, Mixed 470, 49er and 49erFX, and the Nacra 17 – are continuing to close out their regattas from now through to the Paris 2024 Games.

What used to be seen as the radical option looks conservative compared with the formats being used to decide the medals in the new foiling fleets. In the Formula Kiteboard divisions, neither the Men’s leader Theo de Ramecourt (FRA) or Lauriane Nolot (FRA) at the head of the Women’s fleet have any guarantee of the podium on the final day. Despite both athletes having raced a stellar regatta up to the end of qualifying, anyone as far down as 14th in the current standings could go on to win kitefoiling gold. This is the highest level of final-day jeopardy ever seen in Olympic competition.

However, de Ramecourt doesn’t see it so starkly. “As the winner of qualifying I carry two ‘race wins’ into the final,” he says. The boards contest a four-board final where it’s the first to three wins. “So if I win a race in the final, I become the overall winner. I think it is a fair system.” The second-placed athlete in qualifying, Benoit Gomez (FRA), takes through one race win. Two other riders from 3rd to 14th will fight it out for the right to go up against de Ramecourt and Gomez, but will have no ‘race wins’ to take through with them. So the deck is stacked in de Ramecourt’s favour, yet still no medal secured until he gets that race win.

At least the winners of qualification in the iQFOiL windsurfing divisions have the guarantee of some colour of medal. Like her French compatriots on the kiteboards, Hélène Noesmoen (FRA) leads the standings. If she were heading into a Medal Race, her 24-point advantage over Pilar Lamadrid (ESP) would have been enough to lock up gold already. Instead, Noesmoen knows only that she has won a medal of some colour. The second and third placed athletes from qualifying get a bye through to the semi-finals while anyone down to 10th place in qualifying can still snatch gold from Noesmoen.

Whichever two athletes from 2nd to 10th comes out on top in the semi-finals will earn the right to go up against Noesmoen in the three-board, single-race, winner-takes-all final.

Caterina Banti (ITA), one half of the gold-medal-winning crew in the Nacra 17 with Ruggero Tita, shudders to think of putting so much on the line in the final day. “It is not how I would like to decide a regatta, or the Olympic Games, because racing a regatta is like a building process throughout the week. Taking things back to zero, I think it’s not fair because it’s one week’s work. So I’m happy with our Medal Race format.”

Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman (ESP) have all but locked up 470 Mixed gold for Spain. Xammar is also the skipper of Team Spain SailGP, so he is familiar with the most brutal of sudden-death formats, where the whole grand prix season is decided in a $1m three-boat final race lasting little more than 10 minutes. “In SailGP I like the sudden death because it gives me, the beginner, a chance,” he smiles, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “In the 470 I think I prefer the Medal Race.” Well, he would, wouldn’t he! Being the bronze medallist and one of the most experienced and highest ranked in the new 470 Mixed class, Xammar believes that he and Brugman have what it takes for gold in Paris 2024.

Like Noesmoen in the Women’s division, leader of the iQFOiL Men’s fleet, Andy Brown (GBR), is unfazed by the prospect of final day jeopardy. “It’s the whole aim of the elimination finals. It’s the same as SailGP, same as sprint finals on the track, lots of other sports. It brings a high element of pressure and you need to execute. And usually, that’s what the best athletes do. So we’ll just go out to do our best. Bring it on!”