Tokyo 2020 - The Selection Trials

With Tokyo 2020 Less Than A Year Away, We Catch Up On The Happenings Within The British Sailing Team’s Windsurfing Squad.

As 2019 began for the Olympic sailing classes, so did a key process for the Brit-ish Sailing Team in their preparations for Tokyo 2020: the selection trials. Such are the quirks of Olympic sailing that only one representative from each nation can compete in each of the ten classes, including the men’s and women’s RS:X windsurfer. The intentions of this are well-meaning – to prevent a nation (or nations) from becoming totally dominant, to allow smaller countries to compete, to keep fleet sizes manageable and racing fair. The limitations mean that you could have for example three athletes from a country in the top ten in the world and only one would get to go to the Olympics. And so, for a short period of time in each Olympic cycle, the closest of teammates become the fiercest of rivals as they battle for their nation’s one spot at the Games. So it has been in the case for the British Sailing Team windsurfers in early 2019. The British Sailing Team selection policy remains confidential to protect athletes from outside interference, however the first goal in the multi-stage process was to win a spot at the Tokyo 2020 test event, a dress rehearsal for the Games proper held at the Olympic venue.

AN OPEN DOOR