World Sailing’s latest contrived solution

by John Bertrand, Inside the Laylines
The IOC has made its expectations clear to World Sailing: if the sport wants to stay in the Olympic Games, it needs formats that are much easier to watch. World Sailing’s latest response is another small tweak to the medal race. The 49er, ILCA, Nacra 17, and 470 fleets are still trapped in a contrived medal‑race world, while the Formula Kite actually delivers clear, ruthless, made‑for‑TV finals that the IOC understands.

At Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Mallorca, World Sailing rolled out a trial system built around an Elimination Series, a two‑race finals day, and points compression, applied first during the week to keep more boats in contention and then again before the last two finals races to bunch the top ten and decide the medals.

I caught up with American 49er sailor Ian MacDiarmid, who was fighting for medals in Mallorca, to understand the new elimination and finals race format. What came through, both from those conversations and from digging into the Palma results, is that while the system is marginally better for television, it still carries many of the same structural problems as the old one and can be less fair, especially for boats outside the medals who see a week’s work partially erased.

If dinghy sailing wants to remain in future Olympics, its long‑term direction is likely the elimination style already established in Formula Kite and now adopted in iQFOiL: a knockout ladder culminating in a four‑boat final. – Full report

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.