Over Sixty Nations at Rio Games

Before any sailor’s dream of competing in the Olympics can be fulfilled, their country must first be deemed sufficiently competitive. With the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro nearly upon us, that process of country qualification for the ten sailing events is now complete.

The process began at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Santander, Spain, with the qualification system taking sailors around the world for two years, with the final event last week at the Trofeo S.A.R Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, thus closing out the qualifying country list for the Rio summer bonanza and the Olympic sailing competition.

Three hundred eighty sailors, representing 61 countries, will compete at the Rio Games.

Although the qualification process may be over, we still do not yet know which sailors will be taking those places as national selection processes continue around the world. There are also the two Tripartite places in both Laser Standard and Laser Radial available which the IOC will confirm in the coming weeks, so the number of countries involved in the sailing competition may yet still rise.

Country Qualification Criteria – Full list of Qualified Countries

Source: World Sailing