Moving team racing to the next level

Amanda Callahan (USA), Chair of the World Sailing Team Race Committee, provides a snapshot of where team racing currently stands — globally and structurally — with some thoughts on what her committee is doing to respond to underlying challenges.

The comeback of elite team racing
After years of relative dormancy at the highest level, team racing is showing signs of resurgence. World Sailing rebooted the Team Racing World Championship in 2025 in a new 2v2 keelboat format. That championship, held in Newport, RI, hosted 12 teams from 10 countries.

The Global Team Race Regatta, started in 2019, has been held annually to fill the void created when the Team Race World Championship ceased. In 2025, it attracted teams from AUS, JPN, BDA, NED, USA, SWE, ITA, SCO, and UK. 2K team racing in Europe promotes fun, gender equal, and affordable keelboat team racing with events across Europe.

Major dinghy team races, like the Wilson Trophy (UK TR Championship) and Hinman Trophy (US TR Championship), continue to be over subscribed.

Growth of the pipeline and grassroots efforts around the world
Beyond the top-tier world championship events, there’s evidence of expanding activity outside of the traditional hotbeds in the US, UK, and AUS.

Argentina hosted their first Team Racing National Championship this year for both adult and youth age groups. China relaunched a team racing effort in doublehanded dinghies in the 2v2 format. Angola ran a six team TR in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of their National Independence. Japan runs their team racing nationals in Snipes with the 3v3 format.

Brazil will be introducing team racing at their youth nationals in February. And the South African Sailing Association has funding and keen interest in starting a team racing league; they already have matched dinghies with colored sails, they are just missing the know-how.

Optimist sailors around the world continue to find immense joy and satisfaction in “burying their opponents” into last at regional, continental, and world championship events. Teams from 48 countries did battle at the 2025 Optimist Team Racing World Championship in Slovenia.

We are seeing more classes run team racing events: Euro-ILCA will host Team Racing Europeans in December in Greece for 12 teams from 9 countries. The RS Feva Class is planning an international junior 2v2 team race in Sweden next August in addition to their established, sponsored, and very popular event in the UK.

AND, World Sailing is launching a Mixed Team Racing Demonstration Event before the 2025 Youth Sailing World Championship in December. The one-day event will be held in ILCA 6s and feature one boy and one girl per team. ESP, ISR, CAN, POR, PER, BEL, ITA, USA, IRL, and SUI are signed up.

From a development standpoint, team racing is being actively fostered again. The base is being grown and the top-tier events have renewed credibility.

The Olympic Challenge
Sailing is facing a broadcast and relevance problem. With LA28 hosting 36 sports and Brisbane 2032 expected to cut that number, sailing sits in the bottom 12 of all Olympic sports for broadcast performance at the Paris 2024 Games.

That should alarm everyone who cares about the sport’s future. The IOC is looking for sports to be exciting, easy to understand, attract and retain the casual Olympic viewer, and needs to consider in-person viewing opportunities.

At the 2025 World Sailing Annual Conference, there were lengthy debates about possible Olympic sailing formats to address the broadcast challenges such as a 26-minute broadcast window, on-time starts regardless of what the wind is doing, and eliminating protests after the finish. World Sailing is taking action with the athletes to meet the immediate challenge.

Can Team Racing be part of the Olympic solution?
The team racing format can help as it has shorter races, reliable scheduling, potentially tech-forward officiating, exciting visuals (and audio!), and head-to-head nation-versus-nation drama.

Much discussion and thought have gone into reducing costs, as it is a major consideration for all sailors from Youth level through Olympic campaigners. Again, team racing can be affordable, particularly if it is done in existing equipment.

If team racing has a shot of making it into the Olympics it would likely be 2v2 ILCA team racing. Teams would be comprised of sailors already qualified in a gender equal team. No additional equipment/boats. No budget explosion. Just a standardized, scalable format that emerging nations can adopt tomorrow.

Why ILCAs and not 470s? While ILCAs are provided equipment in the Olympics, they are also much more widely available worldwide.

Note: 2v2 is not my favorite flavor of team racing. I’m a 3v3 dinghy team race purist at heart, but unfortunately the nuances of the 6-boat game would be lost on a general TV audience.

However, a major challenge the discipline faces is a lack of infrastructure. Team racing (and to some degree match racing) is a discipline without a global home. There isn’t an international communication network, centralized calendar, or training resources. Everywhere team racing thrives today, it is because of grass roots efforts of individual yacht clubs, classes, or university/school systems and at times, national authorities.

Possible pathways forward
Given the current state, here are some strategic ideas that the World Sailing Team Race Committee is looking to implement to help team racing continue to grow worldwide:

• Create training resources and some centralized organization: The WS TR Committee hopes to leverage the recently launched World Sailing Academy to create a Team Racing Hub to provide training resources and a centralized calendar. We hope to build communication channels to do a better job of promoting events that are happening.
• Elevate (social) media/TV presence: Produce a broadcast-quality production, with commentary, on-water cameras and audio, and compelling behind-the-scenes stories to demonstrate team racing’s value to broadcasters and sponsors.
• Inclusive access and global growth: Foster participation from countries outside the traditional team racing powerhouses, including emerging sailing nations, with team racing development regattas, using local boats/classes. The more nations engaged, the stronger the case for major event inclusion.
• Link to multi-discipline/spectacle events: Much like the upcoming mixed demonstration event at the Youth Sailing World Championships, we can look for more opportunities to integrate team racing into broader sailing championships or youth games or Regional Games as an “invited event” to raise profile and attract new sailors.
• Update and maximize the Team Race Ranking System: The current ranking system needs more categories (youth/opti, dinghy, keelboat) and more data (regatta results) to make it a useful tool. It needs to be easier for Organizing Authorities to input regatta results. This creates a listing of all held events, making the case of geographical reach and involvement easier to make.

The “wheel” of team racing is indeed rolling again. The grassroots energy exists. Some higher-level versions exist. The positive signs are real. However, the bigger leap — from niche discipline to mainstream, broadcast-worthy sailing format with global breadth — has not yet been taken. But we are working on it (and we can see a path to accomplish it)!

Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Sailing Program (July 16-28):
First Week – July 16-20
Men’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class – Long Beach, CA
Women’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class – Long Beach, CA
Men’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL – Long Beach, CA
Women’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL – Long Beach, CA

Second Week – July 23-28
Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 – Los Angeles, CA
Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 – Los Angeles, CA
Mixed Two Person Dinghy – 470 – Los Angeles, CA
Men’s Skiff – 49er – Los Angeles, CA
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX – Los Angeles, CA
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 – Los Angeles, CA

For more details, click here.