Olympic Class Musical Chairs: Eleven into ten dont go!
by Andy Rice 19 Oct 2007 15:11 BST
What makes a good Olympic class? What do you think are the important criteria? Is it availability and affordability? Should it be high performance, or maybe low performance? After all sometimes the slower a boat, the more tactical the racing. But then faster boats can be more fun to sail, and certainly more fun to watch.
Is it media appeal? After all, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) say that minority interest sports like sailing and equestrianism need to start appealing to broader audiences to attract greater share of the global TV audience during the Olympic fortnight.
In a little more than two weeks from now, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) will sit down to determine which will be the categories for the Olympic Regatta in Weymouth, England, in the summer of 2012.
So over the next two weeks, SailJuiceBlog.com will be running a series of articles looking at the Olympic classes, and weighing up the pros and cons of the existing classes – and a few new ones besides. I’d like to hear what you think too, and in the next few days I’ll be launching an Olympic Classes Survey, where you can vote for your most wanted – and most hated – Olympic boats.
Olympic sailing is at a critical juncture. The IOC has handed ISAF the task of whittling down the existing 11 categories that will be represented at Qingdao 2008, down to just 10 for Weymouth 2012.
A game of musical chairs then.
Read the full article on Andy Rice's SailJuice Blog.