The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games has finally arrived! With the Olympic torch burning and the sailing events on the horizon, it is important to understand how the sailors get scored.
The 2024 Games will contest 10 sailing events, with four events for men, four for women, and two mixed. There are different scoring systems for boat classes, windsurfing, and kite events.
In Olympic sailing, there are six boat events: Men’s Skiff, Women’s Skiff, Women’s Dinghy, Men’s Dinghy, Mixed Multihull, and Mixed Dinghy. At the Games, the Men’s Skiff will be sailed in a 49er, Women’s Skiff in a 49er FX, Women’s Dinghy in a ILCA 6, and Men’s Dinghy in a ILCA 7. The Mixed Multihull will be sailed on a Nacra 17, and the Mixed Dinghy will be sailed on a 470.
The scoring system for boats is not too difficult to understand because we . Initially, the fleet will compete in the Opening Series – races where crews score points depending on their finishing position. The boat that finishes in first place receives one point, the second earns two points, and so on.
In these events, the fleet will compete across either 10 or 12 races in the Opening Series, with each boat’s worst score discarded and not counting against their total. This will give them an overall total, with the boat with the lowest total ranked first and the highest total last. At the end of the Opening Series, the top ten boats in the fleet will qualify for the Medal Race.
The Medal Race will follow the same format, but points will be doubled. Therefore, the boat that finishes first will score two points, down to 20 points for the crew that finishes tenth. The score in the Medal Race cannot be discarded. In some situations, a crew will have built a big enough lead that they cannot be overtaken in the Medal Race, while in others, they will focus largely on one rival, known as marking or match racing.
How does scoring work in the Windsurfing Events?
There has been a change of equipment in windsurfing, where the RS:X has been replaced by the iQFOiL. As with the boat classes, the windsurfing events start with an Opening Series, with the entire fleet racing up to 17 times. The scoring system for the Opening Series is the same as above. At the end of the Opening Series, the top 10 progress. Those ranked fourth to tenth compete in a Quarter-Final, with the top two in that elimination race progressing through to the Semi-Final.
In the Semi-Final, they will compete against those lying in second and third place. Once again, two will progress, joining the top overall athlete in the Final. The Final thus consists of three competitors, each guaranteed a medal, meaning that the final race defines who will walk away with gold.
How does scoring work in Kite events?
The newest event on the Olympic program is the Formula Kite, which has a more complex scoring system to understand. Similarly to the other events, the fleet of 20 will initially compete in the Opening Series, made up of a maximum of 16 races with up to three discards. That will be used to whittle down the fleet to a top ten. Of those, the top two athletes will progress directly to the Final, while those from third to tenth will compete in the Semi-Finals.
In those Semi-Finals, the first to three wins progresses to the Final. There is a catch, though. The athletes ranked third and fourth – who will be in separate Semi-Finals – carry two wins each through, needing just one more to make the final. The athletes in fifth and sixth carry over one win, meaning that they need a further two wins. The remaining four athletes carry none, therefore needing to win three times to make the Final.
In that Final, the first overall seed will start with two wins under their belt, while the second seed has one. The two qualifiers from the Semi-Finals start from scratch, needing three wins to take the title. From that point, it is again a case of the first to three wins taking the gold medal, with the competition stopping at that point and the remaining medals awarded based on the number of victories and seeding.
