Sailing has 330 athletes (165 male and 165 female) competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the competition to qualify for the Games is fierce.
The first qualification event was the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships (SSL 2500), where 107 quota places were awarded:
- Dinghy: 16 per gender, 8 for mixed
- Skiff: 10 per gender
- Mixed Multihull: 9
- Windsurfing: 11 per gender
- Kite: 8 per gender
Great Britain and The Netherlands qualified in the most disciplines with eight, Spain and Italy qualified in seven disciplines, with New Zealand and Germany qualifying in six. Australia booked themselves five quota places, with Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and USA qualifying in four events each.
The rest of the quota places will be awarded at the 2024 ILCA World Championships with 14 (7 per gender), as well as 2023/2024 Continental Qualification Events where one quota place available per class in each region (Africa, Asia, Central & South America, Europe, North America & Caribbean, and Oceania) will be awarded, except for men's and women's ILCA Dinghy where 3 quota places for Asia per gender, and 2 quota places per gender will be awarded to the other regions.
Then there is the ‘2024 Last Chance Regatta’, where in the 49er & 49er FX Skiff, the ILCA 6 & 7 Dinghy and Nacra 17 Mixed Multihull classes 3 quota places will be awarded, in the 470 Mixed Dinghy 4 quota places are up for grabs, and in the Windsurfing and Kite disciplines 5 quota places will be awarded per gender.
Finally Emerging Nations and Universality places are awarded.
As host nation, France is automatically entitled to enter all 10 Olympic events, bypassing the qualification process.
The full qualification process can be found on the IOC website here.
Mark has been managing sailing websites since 1996, always being at the forefront of technology, and now manages the combined Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com network. He has covered events such as the International Moth World Championship and Cowes Week, focusing on the sailors' thoughts and words. Mark has been European Champion in the Farr 30 & J/24 class and has won numerous UK titles, and competes regularly in local and national events in dinghies and sportsboats.