US Olympic Program: Moving forward

It was in February 2023 when the U.S. Olympic Sailing Program cratered as the Executive Director and prominent coaches resigned amid a restructuring of the program by US Sailing. Leadership within the fundraising group also quit. What a mess, but where are we now?

There remain entities outside of US Sailing that support the athletes, among them Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, NY. Here is an update:

The Triple Crown regattas start in less than two weeks. With full fleets in the Olympic classes, the top 8 finishers earn prize grants. These funds are to be used for campaign expenses, generally the ‘unsexy’ items such as insurance, regatta entry fees, or economy travel to events.

In addition to the 49er and 49erFx, we are adding ILCA 6 and 7 (previously known as Lasers) and providing for an exhibition start for Waszps. For more information, click here.

There is a lot of activity around high performance / Olympic sailing right now. The 2023 Golden Spinnaker Gala on September 7 was a great event, especially because 23 top American sailors were in attendance and helped raise over $600,000 funds for The Sailing Foundation of New York.

Normally these funds are used only for already Olympic qualified athletes, but this year New York Yacht Club and the Foundation voted to set up an account with $2500 for every athlete in attendance. They were that impressive!

There were also representatives of America One, American Magic, Pensacola Yacht Club, the San Francisco Bay area and US Sailing … all under one big tent. The next morning, Oakcliff hosted a summit with most of the entities participating. There is a concerted effort to move forward. In our opinion, we can’t move fast enough.

For a link to the newsletter that was created in February after the huge disruption in American Olympic Sailing, click here. It is worth another read.

Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Program*:
Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 (41)
Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 (41)
Mixed Two Person Dinghy – 470 (19)
Men’s Skiff – 49er (20)
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX (20)
Men’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class (20)
Women’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class (20)
Men’s Windsurfing – iQFoil (24)
Women’s Windsurfing – iQFoil (24)
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 (19)
* Quota per event in parenthesis but does not include Universality Places (2 men, 2 women)

Venue: Marseille, France
Dates: July 26-August 11

Details: https://www.paris2024.org/en/the-olympic-games-paris-2024/