{"id":160737,"date":"2025-11-14T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=160737"},"modified":"2025-11-14T08:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T08:37:50","slug":"is-the-olympic-sailing-medal-becoming-just-a-participation-trophy-matt-sheahan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/events-2\/is-the-olympic-sailing-medal-becoming-just-a-participation-trophy-matt-sheahan-160737","title":{"rendered":"Is the Olympic Sailing medal becoming just a participation trophy? \u2013 Matt Sheahan"},"content":"Unsightly and unnecessary public spat that has little to do with sailing... or another example of the extraordinary lengths some teams will go to win the America\u2019s Cup<\/a>?\r\n\r\nWhatever your view, the recent public exchanges between the Defender<\/a> and the Challenger of Record<\/a> are illustrations of how the Cup\u2019s capacity to both incense and entertain also demonstrate how much the Auld Mug means to those who want it in their trophy cabinet.\r\n\r\nOne thing is clear, the 38th America\u2019s Cup<\/a> has started. The trouble is that the dispute could lead the next cycle down a difficult alley with the risk of yet another Cup re-set.\r\n\r\nBy the time you read this, things may have developed further \u2013 hopefully for the better with both sides getting on. But the dialogue has been getting feisty.\r\n\r\nOn the face of it, the proposed format for the next America\u2019s Cup in the draft protocol<\/a> as released by the Kiwis had several interesting new aspects.\r\n\r\nThe next generation of AC75<\/a>s will have no cyclors or grinders and rely solely on electric power. The crew will be reduced from eight to six and will include a female sailor and an under-25-year-old. A seventh position would be available too as a guest slot.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s also proposed there will be a spending cap of \u20ac60million, around half of what was previously spent.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n\r\nBut perhaps one of the biggest and most significant changes this time around is the formation of the AC Partnership (ACP) where the Defender, the Challenger of Record and \u2018other prospective AC38 competitors\u2019, agree to work collaboratively to create the next America\u2019s Cup. The responsibility of this group includes the format of racing, the commercial rights, the selection of host cities and so on.\r\n\r\nAnd while I\u2019m led to believe there have been plenty of contentious issues during the negotiation of the yet-to-be-signed new Protocol, it was this area that seemed to be at the heart of the recent terse statements from both sides.\r\n\r\nThe announcement of Naples as the venue for the next America\u2019s Cup<\/a> came before the Challengers had formally agreed it (normally the venue is revealed after the Protocol has been agreed as this sets out the overall format of the event). So, given the new ACP arrangement where all parties were responsible for the venue, three of the Challengers \u2013 Athena Racing<\/a>, American Magic<\/a> and Alinghi<\/a> \u2013 voiced their concerns that the Defender wasn\u2019t playing by the draft rules that they were still working on.\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s more detail in the dispute, but my suspicion is that the Challengers\u2019 reactions are an indication of a broader concern over how the Defender is behaving this early in the Cup cycle and that they need to nip this in the bud.\r\n\r\nFor me, the bigger issue is the way in which this dispute has polarised the teams. On one side are the British \u2013 as Challenger of Record \u2013 the American and Swiss teams. On the other the Kiwis, the Italians<\/a> \u2013 who are understandably delighted at the prospect of a home Cup \u2013 and the French<\/a> who admit that competing closer to home makes things a lot easier.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_159141\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Last time the Cup was decided in a Deed of Gift match the result was a pair of monster multihulls. It was eventually won by the wing-sailed trimaran USA-17. Photo: AP Photo\/Daniel Ochoa de Olza[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBut what if this dispute deepens and the two sides dig in?\r\n\r\nYou can do pretty much anything with mutual agreement in the Cup but when cooperation runs out the backstop is the basic rules as set out in the America\u2019s Cup Deed of Gift.\r\n\r\nAs we know from 2010 when agreement couldn\u2019t be reached for the 33rd America\u2019s Cup after the hugely successful previous one in Valencia, a DoG match can be pretty expensive. It can also mark a design re-set where teams go back to a clean sheet of paper.\r\n\r\nFor the Kiwis this would be a big risk, both financially and in relinquishing control over the rules that has helped them achieve their phenomenal success over the last three Cup cycles.\r\n\r\nStatements over the last few weeks from the Challenger of Record\u2019s camp suggest they are already collaborating. And it seems likely they could have much deeper pockets when working together to fund an arms race.\r\n\r\nToday we have an AC75 rule that has plenty of life in it with boats that are at the leading edge, and racing that is getting closer with each iteration. To lose that now would remove the stability for the next Cup cycle \u2013 and if there\u2019s one thing that holds back investment it\u2019s uncertainty.\r\n\r\n
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What should an Olympic medal represent? Is it still sport\u2019s ultimate accolade? Is it a demonstration that you\u2019re the best in the world and have dedicated your entire life to proving it? Or is it more of a blue Peter badge, a confirmation that you took part in a piece of sporting media entertainment that you should be proud of? As we head towards the next Olympic Games regatta in San Diego there are a growing number of sailors who are extremely worried that the medals in 2028 will represent more of a memento for turning up rather than a celebration of being the world\u2019s best. It\u2019s no secret that Olympic Sailing has had the sword of Damocles hanging over it for decades. An expensive, complicated sport that still isn\u2019t as inclusive as the modern age requires has been a hard sell for a long time. For years the sport has resisted a class cull to rationalise the overall fleet and bring the numbers down to more economically viable proportions. You could argue that it should have led the way and merged the genders for all of the double-handers to keep classes and disciplines while reducing the head count. And though this has happened in the 470s and Nacra cats, the sport has introduced the equivalent of BMX bike and skateboard categories in the foilers, in the hope these more street-style classes will draw in a huge new audience. I have nothing against foiling boards or kite foils \u2013 they\u2019re exciting \u2013 but these new classes have not brought spectators and supporters in the kind of numbers that will turn around the economic fortunes of Olympic Sailing. And neither will changing the medal racing format by reducing it to a single, short, winner-take-all final race between the top four. Apparently, this is what could be on the cards for Los Angeles. I\u2019m told there are plans to reduce the fleet racing stages beforehand to just three days with no reserve or lay days \u2013 which surely doesn\u2019t help to even out the spikes in weather and fortune that often influence our sport. And all in the name of creating a greater sense of jeopardy to make our sport more exciting. Really? More of a lottery by the sounds of it. Imagine if you turned up at your national championships where you\u2019d worked hard at consistently delivering the points during the week only to be told that the points buffer you\u2019d accumulated counted for nothing when it came to a shot at the trophy. That\u2019s effectively what happened to British iQFoil sailor Emma Wilson, who was 31 points ahead in the games last year. We know how that played out for her… a bronze. Surely what would help to get sailing back on track would be to take the racing to a venue that has a reputation for breeze on a stretch of water that can cope with a variety of wind directions and that isn\u2019t hopelessly compromised by being too …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":463,"featured_media":152913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1540],"tags":[754,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160738,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160737\/revisions\/160738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160737"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=160737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}