World Sailing's Events Committee discuss Olympic events in London

Ahead of the Mid-Year Meeting, World Sailing's Council approved an Events Committee recommendation to review the following Events:

- Men's Windsurfer
- Women's Windsurfer
- Men's One Person Dinghy Heavyweight
- Men's Two Person Dinghy
- Women's Two Person Dinghy

The review of the five Events meant that the remaining five Events and their equipment remain unchanged by Council for Paris 2024. These Events and equipment are:

- Men's One Person Dinghy - Laser
- Women's One Person Dinghy - Laser Radial
- Women's Skiff - 49erFX
- Men's Skiff - 49er
- Mixed Two Person Multihull - Nacra 17

The Events Committee were tasked with reviewing, debating and making a recommendation to World Sailing's Council on whether to retain the Events under review or if new Events should replace them.

After the 2017 Annual Conference, a 2024 Events & Equipment Working Party was formed to consider and make recommendations to the Events Committee on the 2024 sailing events.

The Working Party conducted an extensive program of work to understand the issues relevant for sailing and the sports events programme in the Olympic Games.

The working party established that it is in the best interests of the sport to strengthen sailing at the Olympic Games. It was stated that no change is not an option and there must be gender equity in events with two or four mixed events. To achieve these objectives, the Working Party identified three key events that included Windsurfer events, Kiteboarding events and an Offshore Keelboat event.

World Sailing received 59 submissions in advance of the Mid-Year Meeting that proposed recommendations whether events under review should be retained or if new Events should replace them.

The Events Committee heard from delegates who put spoke about their submissions before running through the submissions to establish which ones would receive a proposer and a seconder which would enable them to vote.

Submissions M09, M10, M11, M14, M16, M18, M22, M23, M24, M28, M34, M36, M42, M43, M44, M45, M49, M56, M57 and M61 all received a proposer and a seconder.

A secret ballot was held and Committee members were asked to vote on which Submission they supported. In addition, the first vote allowed members to vote to retain the existing Events and Equipment that will be used at Tokyo 2020.

The first round of votes saw M36 and M45 retained. A run off vote was held between M09, M14, M18, M22, M23, M49 and M57.

M18, M22, M23, M49 and M57 were retained. A run off vote was held between M14 and M23 however this was a tie and Events Committee Chair Sarah Kenny had the casting vote and retained M23.

This subsequently saw another vote between M18, M22, M23, M36, M45, M49 and M57.

M18, M22, M36 and M45 were retained and in the final vote, M36 received more than 50% of the vote and was subsequently approved as the Events Committee recommendation to Council for the 2024 Olympic Games.