Race Officials selected for Tokyo 2020

For athletes, the climb to compete in the Olympic Games. For race officials, the journey is equally as arduous. As nations determine who will represent at Tokyo 2020, World Sailing has released the names of the appointees that will be running their races.

The 60 International Race Officials from 31 nations are spread across the Technical Delegates, Race Management Team, International Jury, Technical Committee with an additional Event Disciplinary Investigating Officer.

Tom Duggan of the USA will head the Race Management Team as the Principal Race Officer (PRO) and Spain’s Maria Torrijo will act as the Deputy PRO. Both Duggan and Torrijo attended the READY STEADY TOKYO – Sailing Olympic test event and hold several years of international experience across the sport.

Duggan and Torrijo will lead a team of six Course Representatives, responsible for running the racing for each of the Olympic classes, with 12 further International Race Officers supporting the team.

Great Britain’s John Doerr will Chair the International Jury with Spain’s Andres Perez Alvarez as Vice Chair. They will make up a 27-person International Jury who will ensure the Racing Rules of Sailing are properly applied to ensure a fair competition.

In addition, Australia’s David Tillett has been appointed as the Event Disciplinary Investigating Officer (EDIO) and will be responsible for investigating complaints of misconduct.

The Technical Committee will bring together 11 International Measurers and will be Chaired by Dimitris Dimou of Greece with Belgium’s Jurgen Cluytmans acting as Vice Chair. The team includes International Measurers will specific expertise on the six pieces of Olympic Equipment that will be in Enoshima. They will be responsible for ensuring that each boat complies with the Class specific rules.

Alastair Fox and Jon Napier from World Sailing will lead the International Race Official team as Technical Delegates to ensure a fair competition and level playing field for the 350 sailors racing across ten Olympic Events to compete on.

For the full list of appointments and the selection procedure… click here.

The Olympic Sailing Competition commences on July 26 and runs through to August 5. Officials will arrive from July 14 with Equipment Inspection commencing on July 22.

Comment: Congrats to Tom Duggan who has been my hero ever since he was called at the last minute for the Rio Olympics, covering for an appointee who had an unexpected emergency, swooping in to make some ballsy and brilliant calls on the first day racing. Also props to Jeff Johnson, who is the National Race Officer at Scuttlebutt Sailing Club, and appointee Lynne Beal (CAN) for the International Jury. – Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt

Background on the team:

Assessment
To select the 60 Race Officials for Tokyo 2020, World Sailing considered 250 of its International Race Officials. For consideration, Race Officials must have officiated at either the 2019 Olympic test event, the 2018 Hempel Sailing World Championships or a Hempel World Cup Series event, Olympic Class World Championship or Continental Championship from September 2016 to August 2019.

Gender Balance
The Tokyo 2020 gender split is 27% female and 73% male across the 60 Race Officials. At Rio 2016, the gender split was 18% female and 82% male.

Regional Breakdown
At Tokyo 2020, 62% of Race Officials will be from Europe, 11% from Oceania, 9% from Asia, 8% from South America, 6% from North American and 1% from Africa.

Source: World Sailing, Scuttlebutt