Who will be the racers at Olympia 2016 ?

[gBiehl]

Unofficial word within the Olympic Circuit for 2016 is a move to regional qualifiers for the remaining 50% of countries that don't qualify at the ISAF Combined Worlds in Santander, ESP in 2014.

Still waiting on an official word from ISAF...

[SBBeachbum]

so like the other guy said, it comes down to money and time/travel constraints maybe?

You will need sponsorship and time to mount an olympic campaign, unless you are a trustafarian with nothing better to do.

You mean like Cabrinha team

[SimonP]

There was an article in our local paper today saying that there is another ISAF vote in November and if 75% vote in favour of RS:X being retained then kite-boarding will be out. Given that some delegates have said they voted the wrong way by mistake it might be a tight vote
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... d=10806930

[ronnie]

I think its a 2/3rds majority needed to cancel the previous vote and have another vote taken.

If this representative is anything to go by, you could have the 2/3rds majority, have another vote and they could vote for kitesurfing again.

http://ventoorientale.cocolog-nifty.com ... eep-1.html

Mrs. Fiona Kidd letter - This is Part 2 of the Mid Year Meeting Summary and the most controversial one so far, the RSX and/or Kiteboarding decision. It is important to understand how the meeting and voting unfolded on this issue.

As you have all been aware, kiteboarding has been pushing pretty hard for several years now to become an Olympic event, which ultimately cumulated in the Format Evaluation Trials that were held in March in Santander, Spain. The result of that trial was extremely positive and proved to be very successful. There were no real negatives highlighted in the report. Safety has been an issue, but it was reported that safety systems have improved should continue to be developed by the classes and the industry. It was basically a glowing report.

However, in order to put all of this into context, it is important to understand the dynamics of the Council Meeting as it is not just simply everyone sitting around the table and just voting. There are many forces at play. Hopefully I can paint the picture.

Upon tabling the Evaluation Report* at Council, the President was asked to go to the IOC to ask for 2 more medals as it was clear that the Kiteboarding and Windsurfing did not want to put one up against the other. In my view, the President should have accepted this challenge as he is an IOC member and currently has some influence. This would have meant that the decision would be deferred until November and that we would all have more information in our hands in order to make a decision. I was certainly in support of this strategy. However, the President did not support this initiative as he felt that he would probably not be successful, and that it would mean the remaining events would be diluted in numbers as sailing only has 380 athletes. At this point in the meeting, it was then suddenly declared that we had to make a decision on one or the other.

Due to the fact that we had to make a decision between the RSX or kiteboarding, the debate became very dynamic and changed considerably in terms of its focus. Almost everyone spoke on the issue. The discussion was more of a debate about the future vision of the sport of sailing, not about the RSX. It was strongly articulated that this was the time for ISAF to lead the sport and not to follow. It was about the opportunity in front of us to inspire a whole new generation of people into the sport from all across the globe and to showcase the sport in Rio and not to wait until 2020. As the Kiteboarding Evaluation report stated “ with a total number of kiteboarders world wide estimated at 1.5 million persons,..... the emerging nations have kiteboarding on almost every beach and it has the capacity to bring more new people into the sport of sailing than all other Olympic classes together”. Many members of Council argued that we(as in the sport) were at a critical crossroads and that it was the time for ISAF to lead the sport and to work with Kiteboarding early in its development to become an Olympic sport, rather than try and catch up with them in 4 to 8+ years time and see the opportunity pass by. This was very much a strategic decision that was viewed to be in the best interest of the future of the sport.

The regions that spoke passionately about the change were IRL, USA, AUS, FIN, SWE, and RSA,etc - a mixture of small and large sailing nations. This group felt that introducing the event in 2020 was just too far away. This group that voted for Kiteboarding represents approximately 78 MNA's within their groupings.

Those nations that spoke for windsurfing were currently strong in the event, FRA, POL NZ, GRE, BRA, etc all supported it for 2016. So as you can see it was very split. This group that voted for the windsurfer represents about 59 MNA's.

That does not include 5 out of the 7 voting VP’s who supported Kiteboarding. It also includes the Chair of the Windsurfing and Kiteboarding Committee voting for Kiteboarding. King Constantine, an IOC member, also strongly voiced his support for Kiteboarding.

Personally, I was very torn. It became clear that this was never going to be a Windsurfing and Kiteboarding decision. I supported the RSX in the Events Committee and then based on the arguments at Council and how the situation unfolded and how voting took place, I changed my vote to Kiteboarding.

Rightly or wrongly, the reason for my vote for Kiteboarding was to seize the opportunity to bring new women to the sport of sailing, and for those members of ISAF that have limited access to the Olympics in our sport today due to cost and accessibility, to have an opportunity to become engaged. Council had made the decision earlier in the meeting to accept equipment that was for 2 new elite sailing events, the Women's Skiff and Mixed Mulithull, which in reality shut the door on the emerging nations,. As a result, the discussion around the Council table moved towards introducing an event that has huge media and youthful appeal and that could inspire a whole new generation to our sport from around the globe.

I apologize to all of you if I have not represented the best interests of women in sailing. I am certainly willing to change my vote in support of the RSX for the November Meeting if that is the will of the Women's Forum.
Kind Regards,
Fiona