Windsurfing in for 2016! Bye Bye Kiting!
After a long six month battle, Windsurfing has made it back as an Olympic Event for the 2016 Olympics.
The ISAF Annual General Meeting, in a simple majority vote, decided to delete Kiteboarding and re-instate Windsurfing, which has been in the Olympics since 1984 as a Mens Event, and since 1992 for Women.
The ISAF AGM also voted to re-instate the RS:X as the class to be used in the 2016 Olympics.
In May the ISAF Mid Year Meeting of the ISAF Council, in Stresa Italy, took many by surprise when it installed Kiteboarding as an Olympic Event, doing so against the recommendation (17 votes to 2) of the Events Committee.
The same recommendation was again put forward to the ISAF Council Meeting at its Annual Conference, in Dun Laoghire, Ireland, but that would have required a 75% majority to Re-open the Decision of the Council from the May Meeting in respect of the events for the 2016 Olympics.
The move to re-open failed by just two votes to reach the required threshold, but got support from 26 of the 38 voting delegates, at the Council Meeting on Thursday.
From there it was likely that if the Council vote was repeated at the Annual General Meeting (held only once every four years), it was obvious that the Windsurfers had done their homework and would carry the day – provided politics did not come into play and delegates at the AGM (where each country physically present is allowed a single vote, instead of just the the regions in the Council Meeting) had stayed true to the voting direction from the Council meeting – which was that although 75% were not in favour of re-visiting, there clear majority were for a re-instatement of Windsurfing.
Given that scenario, the fate of Kiteboarding in a simple vote was inevitable, and the rogue decision of the ISAF Council at its Mid-Year Meeting was finally overturned by a vote of 51 to 40 in favour of the Windsurfer.
The technical process in the voting was that ISAF Regulation 23.1.4 (which covers the Olympic classes for the next Olympics) was amended and approved to include windsurfing
The equipment approved for the 2016 Olympics Sailing Competition is as follows:
Men’s Board -RS:X
Women’s Board – RS:X
Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Men’s second One Person Dinghy – Finn
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Mixed Two Person Multihull – Nacra 17
Further detail can be read on ISAF Conference blog.
As earlier reported, the Mens and Womens One Person Dinghy and the Mens and Womens Skiff have also been confirmed as Events for the 2020 Olympics, along with the respective classes, the Laser, Laser Radial, 49er and 49erFX.
The election for the President and seven Vice Presidents of ISAF resulted in Carlos Croce (ITA) being elected in the second round after Australia’s David Kellett was dropped out, and the final vote was between Croce and Eric Tulla (PUR). It was expected that the European countries would not let the Presidency leave Europe and that proved to be the case. Although before the meeting it was believed to be a close race, between all three.
That vote shaped the Vice Presidential slate, where generally one person per region is voted along with two Women Vice Presidents. The meeting was forced to vote separately for the two Women Vice Presidents after five males won the popular vote, with George Andreadis (GRE), Chris Atkins (GBR), Gary Jobson (USA), Quanhai Li (CHN) and Scott Perry (URU) being successful. Adrienne Greenwood (NZL) was successful in the first round of the Womens vote with the second taking place between Nazli Imre (TUR) and Marcelien Bos-De Koning (NED) a Silver medalist in the 2008 Olympics in the Womens 470 class (believed to be on the Kellett ticket).
Imre won the vote, and was the only Vice President to return from the 2008-2012 session.
by Sail-World