Paris 2024 Day 8: Five Things We Learned

Israel nail the new discipline

Israel’s women’s iQFOiL squad have been strong throughout the past couple of seasons, so Sharon Kantor’s silver medal is not a surprise. But for Tom Reuveny to win gold in the men’s category is a phenomenal achievement, especially considering the ‘sudden death’ format with the knock-out rounds and the winner-takes-all Final.

Italy’s fourth Olympic sailing gold

For such a strong sailing nation, it might surprise you to learn that Marta Maggetti’s victory brings Italy its fourth gold in the history of the modern Olympics. The first came in 1952 with Agostino Straulino and Nico Rode’s victory in the Star keelboat, the next was Alessandra Sensini’s victory in women’s windsurfing at Sydney 2000, then Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti’s win in the Nacra 17 at Tokyo 2020, and now Maggetti brings it to four.

Getting a place directly in the Windsurfing Final has its pros and cons, according to bronze medallist Emma Wilson who had led the competition all week. “I hadn’t done a race yet [today] and the other girls had done a race so they knew where the layline was.” It was a critical piece of knowledge that Wilson hadn’t had a chance to learn until it was too late. 

Japan strong in the Mixed Dinghy

Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka have put down a strong marker in the 470 fleet, leading with scores of 1,2,2,6. This team dominated the World Championship last year so could they be on another roll?

Two Bullets tick the Bucket List

Big surprise package of the day in the Women’s Dinghy was Hannah Snellgrove, the British sailor who won the first two races of the strong wind session and moves up to third overall. “It felt like a bucket list ticking-off moment when you win a race at the Olympics. And then I did it again which is really cool. Unfortunately I couldn’t do it in the third race but I guess you can’t have too much of a good thing,” she laughed.

written by Andy Rice