Paris 2024: Dominant Dutch duo win Gold

Marseille, France (August 2, 2024) – The Women’s Skiff is one of 10 Sailing events held at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Using the 49erFX equipment, 20 teams competed in the 12-race Opening Series on July 28-31, with the top 10 advancing to the single, double-points Medal Race on August 1. When light air prevailed that day, the race was postponed to today to finalize the cumulative scores. Here’s the final report:

For all competition reports, click here.

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz (NED) clinched the first sailing gold medal of Paris 2024 following a hugely dramatic Women’s Skiff Medal Race.

The Dutch duo went into the crucial finale trailing France’s Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon by just a point. Both crews took turns leading the rankings throughout the Opening Series and went into the decisive race with gold on their minds.

Norway’s Helene Naess and Marie Roenningen led the Medal Race early, but the Dutch crew quickly recovered to take the lead after the first lap. Van Aanholt and Duetz then proceeded to assert their dominance on the water and looked set to cross the line first until they went the wrong way, thinking the finish line was elsewhere.

Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler made the most of the error, storming ahead to win the Medal Race, which was enough for the 2023 world champions to collect an Olympic silver medal. After amending their detour, Van Aanholt and Duetz crossed the finish line in third, which helped secure a first Olympic gold medal for the reigning world champions.

To watch the race, click here.

Steyaert and Picon placed sixth in the final 49erFX race of the regatta, which earned them a memorable bronze in front of a jubilant home crowd.

“Today we were supposed to sail a different course which we missed, which was a mistake on our part,” admitted Van Aanholt. “There were a few seconds where Annette and I had to be resilient in order to figure out what went wrong, and we did that quickly which in the end gave us the gold medal.

“It’s been a week with a lot of different wind which is cool because it showcases our sport and shows you can’t be a one-tricky pony. We are very happy with how we sailed today.”

Van Aanholt adds Olympic Gold to her three World Championship wins, two of which were with Duetz.

Sweden – Silver
“We’re just so so happy to end this way,” shared Netzler. “We’re stoked. We were so happy because we set up as a goal to go out there and win the medal race, then at least we’ve done everything that we can because points were as they were. It’s so cool to win the Medal Race here.”

France – Bronze
“It’s incredibly. We knew the teams behind were really strong so we sailed well today and secured the bronze,” said Steyaert. “This was our last Olympic Games. I’ve never won a medal, I was thinking about that every day. All our families were here. They were incredible. We were crying with emotion every day.”

USA – Tenth
Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea were in and out of the top ten during the Opening Series, concluding the first four days in 8, 6, 12, and 10 position. In the Medal Race, they were with the Dutch in mis-reading the course chart, dropping from 2nd to 10th in the race.

No Three-Peat
The Women’s Skiff event was introduced at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and it was fitting for Brazil’s Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze to take the Gold. The duo repeated the feat at Tokyo 2020 but never got rolling in Marseille, finishing 8th overall.

Final Results:
1. Odile van Aanholt/ Annette Duetz (NED), 74 points
2. Vilma Bobeck/ Rebecca Netzler (SWE), 76
3. Sarah Steyaert/ Charline Picon (FRA), 79
10. Stephanie Roble/ Maggie Shea (USA), 125
11. Georgia Lewin Lafrance/ Antonia Lewin Lafrance (CAN)

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Source: World Sailing