With new classes and formats for 2024, find out more about the Olympic sailing courses, scoring and how to win a medal at this year’s Games.
Sailing races begin from a virtual start line between two points – a boat carrying race officials on one end, and a mark on the other end. Before the race start a course will be laid out using marker buoys, which sailors must round in a particular order. The shape of the course depends on the fleet, but will often include an upwind leg and a downwind leg.
Sailors jostle for position on the start line in the minutes counting down to the race start. A series of warning signals indicate how much time is left before the start of the race. When the starting gun goes the sailors can cross the line and head for the first mark of the course. Any sailor deemed to be over the start line when the starting gun goes is penalised.
Races are contested in a ‘fleet race’ format where all contestants in each of the ten events race together on one course. In each fleet the competition is split into the opening series and a medal race or medal series.
During the opening series, boats are allocated points for their finishing position in each race (first place = 1 point, second place = 2 points, etc). The lower the total score, the better the overall placement for the boat. The worst race result for each boat (or up to three race results in windsurfing and kite) is discarded from the opening series.
At the end of the opening series, the top ten competitors go into the medal race (dinghy, mixed dinghy, mixed multihull and skiff) or medal series (kite, windsurfing).
In the dinghy, mixed dinghy, mixed multihull and skiff fleets the medal race counts for double points and the medal race score cannot be discarded/must be counted. The competitor(s) with the lowest points at the end of the medal race will be crowned Olympic champion.
In the windsurfing, those in fourth to tenth compete in a quarter final to compete for two places in the four-athlete semi-final. Those in second and third go straight to the semi-final, facing the two highest ranked athletes from the quarter final. The top two in the semis progress to the final, where they meet the leading ranked athlete. The final is a winner-takes-all race, with the podium positions decided by the ranking of each athlete.
In the kites, the riders placed third to tenth get split into two first-to-three semi-finals. Those in third and fourth take two wins into their semi-finals, and those in fifth and sixth take one win in. The winners of each semi meet the two leading athletes in the four-athlete final. The top rider takes two wins into the final, and the second-placed athlete takes one win in. The winner is decided by the first athlete to win three races.
The Olympic sailing events will take place from 28 July to 8 August and will be aired on Discovery+.
For more information about the Games and all the latest news, visit our Paris 2024 hub.