IN, OUT, IN. RS:X Windsurfing will be back in the Olympic Games 2016.
“Another 4 years!!! Windsurfing back in and kite surfing is out again….. Strange mixed feelings but stoked to roll.” That´s the actual statement of 2012 RS:X Olympic Gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe on his Facebook account.
The latest RS:X designs in action (Pic: NeilPryde).
November 10th 2012 was judgement day in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland at the ISAF meeting. The council decided abou the future of Olympic Windsurfing. And it saw a really surprising decision. The RS:X discipline for men and women, the Olympic One Design Class by NeilPryde, will be reinstated for the Olympic Games at Rio, Brazil 2016. It´s the 9th time that the men will compete for Olympic medals in windsurfing. The women will fight for medals for the 7th time. It´s the third time that the windsurfers will compete on the NeilPryde RS:X.
Read the final report by the ISAF on the the final results of the meetings .
Read a detailed explanation how the result of the final decision came off here
The Olympic sailing classes for io 2016 announced by the ISAF yesterday . And RS:X is in, Kiteboarding not anymore (Source:ISAF).
The ISAF announced the news on their live ticker from the meeting yesterday afternoon arond 4.30 pm (Source: ISAF).
Have a look on the full ticker here!
Many windsurfers supported the idea to bring windsurfing back as an Olympic discipline for 2016 and it obviously helped to reinstate RS:X for 2016. For the kitboarding representatives and as well for top kiteboarding racers the result was unexpected. We often talked to insiders in the previous months and weeks and all of them were sure that windsurfing is out of the game. Even at national events and local mainstream media kiteboarding had suddenly a much higher attention. But everything has changed again.
The ISAF council the annual conference in Ireland (Pic: ISAF).
We always told the people, who were sure that windsurfing is out, to stay objective and wait till November 10th, when the final decision will be announced. Now, on the second last day of the ISAF meeting the final decision was to choose windsurfing for men and women. Now all the countries can start their windsurfing trainings programms for the Olympic Games in 2016.
Let´s hope, that we will see a lot of new talented windsurfers, who will fight for the medals and present the sport of windsurfing in the best possible way in the public. Not as a feeder class for sailing, but as a funsport. And perhaps there is a chance to develop windsurfing gear in a more funboard oriented direction. We hope that the windsurfing industry has learnt something and moves the Olympic windsurfing forward!
© Continentseven 2012
Most of the racing at the Olympics this year was in planing conditions anyway, so formula wouldn’t have looked any more exciting. Just be happy our sport is still in, and hope that for 2020 we have a new equiptment idea, and kitesurfing can be in as well.
thats bad news. i found it as some kind of opportunity for olympic windsurfing to reincarnate as something better.
Sorry, but I think it’s a little short-sighted to dismiss RS:X as boring to watch. I understand that it might not as visually attractive as say PWA slalom sailing, but the Olympics venues are never going to be chosen based on the reliability of the wind – so windsurfing will need to adapt around the prevailing conditions. Anyone who watched Weymouth this year will have seen that the level of tactics that goes into RS:X sailing is incredible!! For me it seems clear RS:X is the best option – can anyone suggest otherwise and explain why? (not that it is… Read more »
I think it’s really great to see windsurfing back in the Olympics. The Irish windsurfing committee worked extremely hard to have the Irish vote overturned as part of the isa we as windsurfers were not consulted as members within the organisation! I feel it’s up to us as windsurfers to be proactive about the situation, not to fight amongst each other and help our sport to grow, we are extremely lucky to have our sport included in the olympics and as you can see there are a lot of sports that would love to take our place! Over The next… Read more »
Guys. STOP IT. Everybody except Julien is out of topic!! We don´t want those stupid insults.