Sailing at the 2024 Summer Olympics facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sailing at the Games of the Olympiad
Venue	Marseille Marina
Dates	28 July – 8 August 2024
No. of events	10 (4 men, 4 women,2 mixed)
Competitors	330 (165 men and 165 women)
← 2020 2028 →

Sailing is a sport where athletes race boats or boards across water using wind power. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, sailing competitions took place from July 28th to August 8th. The races were held at the Marseille Marina.

For these Games, the number of sailors was slightly reduced from 350 to 330. An important change was making sure there were an equal number of men and women competing. Also, new rules were added to help more countries take part in the qualifying process.

Sailing Events and Equipment Used

In the 2024 Summer Olympics, sailors competed in ten different events. Each event used a specific type of boat or board. Here's a list of the main events and the equipment they used:

• For the Men's Single-handed Dinghy event, sailors used the ILCA 7 boat.
• For the Women's Single-handed Dinghy event, sailors used the ILCA 6 boat.
• For the Mixed Double-handed Dinghy event, two sailors worked together on a 470 boat.
• For the Mixed Foiling Catamaran event, two sailors used a Nacra 17 boat. This boat lifts out of the water on foils, making it very fast!
• For the Men's Skiff event, sailors used the 49er boat.
• For the Women's Skiff event, sailors used the 49erFX boat.
• For the Men's Windsurfer event, athletes used the IQFoil board.
• For the Women's Windsurfer event, athletes also used the IQFoil board.
• For the Men's Kiteboarding event, competitors used the Formula Kite equipment.
• For the Women's Kiteboarding event, competitors also used the Formula Kite equipment.

The sport's leaders wanted to include new and exciting events. They added more mixed-gender events to keep the competition fair for both men and women.

How Athletes Qualified for Sailing Events

The total number of sailors was 330, with an equal number of men and women. To make sure many different countries could compete, the World Sailing organization made some changes to how athletes qualified.

First Chances to Qualify

The qualification period began at the 2023 Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands. About 107 spots were given out there. These spots went to the top-ranked countries in each of the ten sailing events.

Later Chances to Qualify

More spots were given out at the 2024 World Championships for the Men's ILCA 7 and Women's ILCA 6 events. Seven places were awarded to countries that had not yet qualified.

Sailors could also qualify through special events in their own parts of the world. For example, the 2023 Asian Games in China offered one spot for Asia. The Asian Olympic qualifier in Thailand offered two more.

Final Opportunities to Qualify

The remaining spots were decided at the 2024 Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, France. This event offered 39 more places. Also, the World Sailing Emerging Nations Program helped two male and two female sailors from developing countries to qualify.

As the host country, France automatically got one spot in each of the ten sailing classes.

Types of Boats and Boards Used

Here's a closer look at the different types of equipment used in the Olympic sailing events:

• Type: This tells you what kind of boat or board it is (e.g., Dinghy, Windfoiling).
• Event: All events were "Fleet" races, meaning many boats race at once.
• Gender: Shows if the event is for men, women, or mixed teams.
• Sailors: How many people are on the boat or board.
• Trapeze: A special harness that allows sailors to lean out over the water for balance.
• Mainsail, Jib/Genoa, Spinnaker: These are different types of sails. A "+" means the boat uses that type of sail, and a "–" means it doesn't.

Countries That Competed

A total of 65 countries, called National Olympic Committees (NOCs), sent sailors to the 2024 Summer Olympics. This list does not include "Individual Neutral Athletes" (AIN).

Sailing Competition Schedule

The sailing events took place over many days. "S" means a series of races, and "MR" means the Medal Race, which is the final race for medals.

Medal Winners in Sailing

Here's a summary of which countries and athletes won medals in the sailing events.

Overall Medal Count by Country

This table shows how many gold, silver, and bronze medals each country won in sailing.

  *   Host nation (France)

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Netherlands	2	0	2	4
2	Austria	2	0	0	2
	Italy	2	0	0	2
4	Australia	1	1	0	2
	Israel	1	1	0	2
6	Great Britain	1	0	1	2
7	Spain	1	0	0	1
8	France*	0	1	1	2
	New Zealand	0	1	1	2
	Sweden	0	1	1	2
11	Argentina	0	1	0	1
	Cyprus	0	1	0	1
	Denmark	0	1	0	1
	Japan	0	1	0	1
	Slovenia	0	1	0	1
16	Norway	0	0	1	1
	Peru	0	0	1	1
	Singapore	0	0	1	1
	United States	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		10	10	10	30

Men's Event Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
iQFoil details	Tom Reuveny  Israel	Grae Morris  Australia	Luuc van Opzeeland  Netherlands
Formula Kite details	Valentin Bontus  Austria	Toni Vodišek  Slovenia	Maximilian Maeder  Singapore
Laser details	Matthew Wearn  Australia	Pavlos Kontides  Cyprus	Stefano Peschiera  Peru
49er details	Spain Diego Botín Florián Trittel	New Zealand Isaac McHardie William McKenzie	United States Ian Barrows Hans Henken

Women's Event Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
iQFoil details	Marta Maggetti  Italy	Sharon Kantor  Israel	Emma Wilson  Great Britain
Formula Kite details	Ellie Aldridge  Great Britain	Lauriane Nolot  France	Annelous Lammerts  Netherlands
Laser radial details	Marit Bouwmeester  Netherlands	Anne-Marie Rindom  Denmark	Line Flem Høst  Norway
49erFX details	Netherlands Odile van Aanholt Annette Duetz	Sweden Vilma Bobeck Rebecca Netzler	France Sarah Steyaert Charline Picon

Mixed Event Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
470 details	Austria Lara Vadlau Lukas Mähr	Japan Keiju Okada Miho Yoshioka	Sweden Anton Dahlberg Lovisa Karlsson
Nacra 17 details	Italy Ruggero Tita Caterina Banti	Argentina Mateo Majdalani Eugenia Bosco	New Zealand Micah Wilkinson Erica Dawson

See also

In Spanish: Vela en los Juegos Olímpicos de París 2024 para niños

• Sailing at the 2022 Asian Games
• Sailing at the 2023 Pan American Games