Sailing at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Sailing at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Venues	Savannah
Dates	First race: 22 July 1996 (1996-07-22) Last race: 2 August 1996 (1996-08-02)
Competitors	458 from 78 nations
Boats	312

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possibly the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1996 consisted of a total of ten sailing classes (disciplines). For each class, with the exception of the Soling, eleven races were scheduled from 22 July to 2 August 1996 off the coast of Savannah at the Wassaw Sound (an area of the Atlantic Ocean). For the Soling ten fleetraces were scheduled followed by a series of matchraces for the top 6 boats of the fleetrace result.

Venue

Day Marina
Interactive map of Day Marina
Coordinates: 31°56′01″N 80°56′59″W

According to the IOC statutes the contests in all sport disciplines must be held either in, or as close as possible to the city which the IOC has chosen. An exception was made for the Olympic yachting events, which customarily must be staged on the open sea. On account of this principle, the city of Savannah was chosen for the organization of the sailing events. Savannah is 400 kilometers from Atlanta, a four-hour drive in the same state via two major highways (Interstates 75 and 16). Spectators were given the opportunity to board boats that will sail out to the courses to provide a close look at the competition. About 1000 spectators per day made use of the opportunity.

The sailing events were held off the coast of Savannah at the Wassaw Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The venue used three locations:

• Satellite Olympic Village in Savannah
• Olympic marina on Wilmington Island. The Stars and Solings, were towed between the Olympic marina and their race areas.
• Day marina, a temporary barge system (14,000 m²) near the north side of Wassaw Sound at the mouth of the Wilmington River. The day marina was used as a forward launch area for the dinghies and windsurf boards.

Black = Marinas
Blue = Alpha course
Green = Bravo course
Yellow = Charly course
Red = Delta course

Separate course areas were used for the following pairs of classes:

• Mistral one-design (men and women)
• Europe and Laser
• Finn and Star
• 470 (men and women)
• Tornado and Soling (fleetracing)
• Soling (matchracing)

Competition

Overview

Continents	Countries	Classes	Boats	Male	Female
6	78	10	312	358	100

Continents

• Africa
• Asia
• Oceania
• Europe
• Americas

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1996 Olympic Games. Blue: Water Gray: Never participated in OG Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG Green: Country participated for the first time Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Netherlands Antilles  Andorra  Antigua and Barbuda  Argentina  American Samoa  Australia  Austria  Bahamas  Barbados  Belgium  Bermuda  Belarus  Brazil  Bahrain  Canada  Cayman Islands  Chile  China  Cook Islands  Croatia  Cuba  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark  Djibouti  Ecuador  Spain  Estonia  Fiji  Finland  France  Great Britain  Georgia  Germany  Greece  Guatemala  Guam  Hong Kong  Hungary  Indonesia  Ireland  Israel  Virgin Islands  Italy  British Virgin Islands  Jamaica  Japan  South Korea  Latvia  Saint Lucia  Malaysia  Mexico  Malta  Netherlands  Norway  New Zealand  Paraguay  Poland  Portugal  Puerto Rico  Qatar  Romania  South Africa  Russia  Seychelles  Singapore  Slovenia  San Marino  Switzerland  Slovakia  Sweden  Thailand  Chinese Taipei  Turkey  Ukraine  Uruguay  United States  Venezuela

Classes (equipment)

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jibb/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
Mistral One Design Class	Surfboard		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Mistral One Design Class	Surfboard		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Europe	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1992	2
Laser	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Finn	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1952	12
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1988	3
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1976	6
Tornado	Multihull		2	1	+	+	–	1976	6
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	14
Soling	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	1972	7

1996 Olympic Classes designs

• 

Medal summary

Women's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Women's Mistral One Design	Hong Kong (HKG) Lee Lai-shan	New Zealand (NZL) Barbara Kendall	Italy (ITA) Alessandra Sensini
1996: Europe	Denmark (DEN) Kristine Roug	Netherlands (NED) Margriet Matthijsse	United States (USA) Courtenay Becker-Dey
1996: Women's 470	Spain (ESP) Theresa Zabell Begoña Vía Dufresne	Japan (JPN) Yumiko Shige Alicia Kinoshita	Ukraine (UKR) Ruslana Taran Olena Pakholchik

Men's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Men's Mistral One Design	Greece (GRE) Nikolaos Kaklamanakis	Argentina (ARG) Carlos Espinola	Israel (ISR) Gal Fridman
1996: Finn	Poland (POL) Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Belgium (BEL) Sébastien Godefroid	Netherlands (NED) Roy Heiner
1996: Men's 470	Ukraine (UKR) Yevhen Braslavets Ihor Matviyenko	Great Britain (GBR) John Merricks Ian Walker	Portugal (POR) Victor Rocha Nuno Barreto

Open events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Laser	Brazil (BRA) Robert Scheidt	Great Britain (GBR) Ben Ainslie	Norway (NOR) Peer Moberg
1996: Tornado	Spain (ESP) Fernando León José Luis Ballester	Australia (AUS) Mitch Booth Andrew Landenberger	Brazil (BRA) Lars Grael Henrique Pellicano
1996: Star	Brazil (BRA) Torben Grael Marcelo Ferreira	Sweden (SWE) Hans Wallén Bobby Lohse	Australia (AUS) Colin Beashel David Giles
1996: Soling	Germany (GER) Jochen Schümann Thomas Flach Bernd Jäkel	Russia (RUS) Georgy Shayduko Dmitri Shabanov Igor Skalin	United States (USA) Jeff Madrigali Jim Barton Kent Massey

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	2	0	1	3
2	Spain	2	0	0	2
3	Ukraine	1	0	1	2
4	Denmark	1	0	0	1
	Germany	1	0	0	1
	Greece	1	0	0	1
	Hong Kong	1	0	0	1
	Poland	1	0	0	1
9	Great Britain	0	2	0	2
10	Australia	0	1	1	2
	Netherlands	0	1	1	2
12	Argentina	0	1	0	1
	Belgium	0	1	0	1
	Japan	0	1	0	1
	New Zealand	0	1	0	1
	Russia	0	1	0	1
	Sweden	0	1	0	1
18	United States	0	0	2	2
19	Israel	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
	Norway	0	0	1	1
	Portugal	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 entries)		10	10	10	30

Remarks

Wildcards

After the qualification was finished the following sailors were granted a wildcard:

•  Algeria – Mistral One Design Men, (No show)
•  Guatemala – Mistral One Design Men, Cristian Ruata (45th)
•  Indonesia – Mistral One Design Men, I Gusti Made Oka Sulaksana (13th)
•  Thailand – Mistral One Design Men, Arun Homraruen (21st)
•  Guam – Laser, Brett Chivers, (44th)
•  San Marino – Laser, Luca Belluzzi (56th)
•  Sudan – Laser, (No show)
•  Cuba – 470 Men, Pedro Fernández & Angel Alfredo Jimenez (26th)
•  Sudan – 470 Men, (No show)

Incidents

Hurricane Bertha

• The Olympic sailing facility at Savannah was before the opening of the Olympic Games (10 July) within the Hurricane Bertha warning area. Tornados, Stars and Solings were moved to the Sheraton facility. The Day Marina and the Sheraton were evacuated; the evacuation was complete by 6 PM.

Weather conditions

The winds on a typical day in Savannah begin is as follows:

• In the morning a light breeze from the west to the Northwest at about 5 knots
• The winds diminish in the late mornings
• By midday, the sea breeze circulation begins. When the sea breeze does rise, the winds backs to the south and Southeast
• Wind speed in the afternoon average between 7 and 12 knots

Olympic weather reports were provided by the National Weather Service from the locations Atlanta and Savannah. Doppler weather radar was used from Charleston, South Carolina. From Jacksonville, Florida the weather above the offshore courses was observed.

Sailors

During the Sailing regattas at the 1996 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

Sailors at the 1996 Olympic Games

• 
  
  
  Israel
  Gal Fridman
• 
  
  
  Italy
  Alessandra Sensini
• 
  
  
  Brazil
  Robert Scheidt
• 
  
  
  Poland
  Mateusz Kusznierewicz
• 
  
  
  Estonia
  Toomas Tõniste
• 
  
  
  Germany
  Roland Gäbler
• 
  
  
  Brazil
  Torben Grael
• 
  
  
  Spain
  Luis Doreste

References

• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume I Planning and Organization (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume II The Centennial Olympic Games (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume III The Competition Results (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• Hugh Drake & Paul Henderson (2009). Canada's Olympic Sailing Legacy, Paris 1924 - Beijing 2008. Toronto: CYA.
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sailing at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
• "IYRU Olympic Update". ISAF. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2011.