gotKite wrote:
from:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/11/oly-yach-saxrsx-israel-idUSL5E8GB3ZA20120511Olympics-Delegates misunderstood kiteboard vote-Israeli official
Fri May 11, 2012 5:58am EDTSailboards could become an unwanted item
By Ori LewisJERUSALEM, May 11 (Reuters) - The International Sailing Federation's (ISAF) decision to drop windsurfing from the Olympics in favour of kiteboarding likely came about because some delegates didn't realise what they were voting for, Israel's sailing chief said on Friday.
...
Seems the windsurfers representatives were too complacent and assumed kiting wouldn't make it and as a group they have only their Olympic representatives to blame.
The events sub-commitee voted 14 to 2 for men's windsurfing and 15 to 2 for women's windsurfing and passed that on to the ISAF.
The Israeli ISAF delegate didn't go to the voting, but would have voted for windsurfing if he had. The Spanish ISAF delegate was there to cast the Spanish vote for windsurfing but voted for kitesurfing (by mistake, according to him) for which he has now apologised.
The vote result was 19 to 17 in favour of kiting.
The windsurfers would need a two thirds majority vote before they could get a re-vote to happen, so it looks very unlikely that will happen.