MATTHEW SHEAHAN

IS OLYMPIC SAILING ACTUALLY HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AS A SHOWCASE OF THE SPORT FOR BOTH COMPETITORS AND SPECTATORS?

How was your summer season? If you went to a major event, did you wonder where everyone else was? Cowes Week seemed to stir up plenty of debate as to why numbers haven’t returned to those of a few years ago.

Among the many views, and setting that of cost to one side, a common one was how seven days of racing (plus the additional ones to cover getting there and back), doesn’t fit with people’s busy lifestyles any more.

If you weren’t at a regatta maybe you were watching the Olympics? What did you think of the sailing in Marseille? I ask because this year I was surprised at how many people voiced criticisms that the Games format isn’t as fair as it could be and isn’t showing our sport in its best light.

Spectator sailing and the medal race system has been a source of debate since the day it was announced as the new configuration for Olympic sailing. Introduced for the 2008 Beijing Games to make sailing more appealing to a wider audience while making the sport of winning medals more dramatic, we were told that this was required to secure sailing’s future as an Olympic sport. Carry on as it was and the threat was that sailing could lose its place in the Games.