At the World Sailing public council call Wednesday 28 Oct the decision was heavily in favour of Recommendation 1 (the WHITE recommendation).
- Events Committee Recommendation 1: Replace Kite with Wingfoil, retain MX Dinghy and MX Multihull.
Events Committee Decision: 11 approve, 1 reject, 1 abstain.
- Equipment Committee Recommendation 1: Equipment criteria for Wingfoil, retain MX Dinghy and MX Multihull equipment.
Equipment Committee Decision: approved unanimously.
The other two Recommendations – BLUE A and BLUE B were rejected by both committees.
In addition, both expert Committees discussed an additional medal:
- Recommendation 11th Medal – Mixed Team Racing.
A mixed team sailing variant with no additional athlete quota to be developed as a second medal opportunity. It is put forward to Council for further support.
Events Committee Decision: 10 approve, 1 reject, 1 abstain.
These decisions now will go forward to Council at the World Sailing Annual Conference in November 2026.
There was much talk of extending the Regulation 11.5 selection process, to allow more time for further analysis to be done for decisions to be more closely aligned with the IOC Fit for the Future programme.
Fit for the Future is the IOC’s new process methodology for assessing sports for the future to shape more relevant, flexible and sustainable Olympic Games, by increasing broadcast attractivity, social media appearance and continuous storytelling.
Fit for the Future could have considerable effect on Sailing as an Olympic sport after 2032. The above Regulation 11.5 Events Decision process will possibly need to adjust its event/equipment criteria now, if Sailing is to continue to feature in the future IOC programme.
It was this difficult background that drove the change to a simpler race/medal format decision, that has been trialed this season, but failed to agree on a common format. Something that may be regretted in future IOC discussions.
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World Sailing Events Committee reveals new Olympic format/equipment