# Sailing at the 1996 Summer Olympics

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

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. 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 m$^2$) 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.
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 (AHO) Andorra (AND) Antigua and Barbuda (ANT)  Argentina (ARG) American Samoa (ASA) Australia (AUS)  Austria (AUT) Bahamas (BAH) Barbados (BAR)  Belgium (BEL) Bermuda (BER) Belarus (BLR)  Brazil (BRA) Bahrain (BRN) Canada (CAN)  Cayman Islands (CAY) Chile (CHI) China (CHN)  Cook Islands (COK) Croatia (CRO) Cuba (CUB)  Cyprus (CYP) Czech Republic (CZE) Denmark (DEN)  Djibouti (DJI) Ecuador (ECU) Spain (ESP)  Estonia (EST) Fiji (FIJ) Finland (FIN)  France (FRA) Great Britain (GBR) Georgia (GEO)  Germany (GER) Greece (GRE) Guatemala (GUA)  Guam (GUM) Hong Kong (HKG) Hungary (HUN)  Indonesia (INA) Ireland (IRL) Israel (ISR)  Virgin Islands (ISV) Italy (ITA) British Virgin Islands (IVB)  Jamaica (JAM) Japan (JPN) South Korea (KOR)  Latvia (LAT) Saint Lucia (LCA) Malaysia (MAS)  Mexico (MEX) Malta (MLT) Netherlands (NED)  Norway (NOR) New Zealand (NZL) Paraguay (PAR)  Poland (POL) Portugal (POR) Puerto Rico (PUR)  Qatar (QAT) Romania (ROM) South Africa (RSA)  Russia (RUS) Seychelles (SEY) Singapore (SIN)  Slovenia (SLO) San Marino (SMR) Switzerland (SUI)  Slovakia (SVK) Sweden (SWE) Thailand (THA)  Chinese Taipei (TPE) Turkey (TUR) Ukraine (UKR)  Uruguay (URU) United States (USA) Venezuela (VEN) |

### Classes (equipment)

| Class | Type | 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 |

## Medal summary
### Women's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1996: Women's Mistral One Design details | Hong Kong (HKG) Lee Lai-shan | New Zealand (NZL) Barbara Kendall | Italy (ITA) Alessandra Sensini |
| 1996: Europe details | Denmark (DEN) Kristine Roug | Netherlands (NED) Margriet Matthijsse | United States (USA) Courtenay Becker-Dey |
| 1996: Women's 470 details | 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 details | Greece (GRE) Nikolaos Kaklamanakis | Argentina (ARG) Carlos Espinola | Israel (ISR) Gal Fridman |
| 1996: Finn details | Poland (POL) Mateusz Kusznierewicz | Belgium (BEL) Sébastien Godefroid | Netherlands (NED) Roy Heiner |
| 1996: Men's 470 details | 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 details | Brazil (BRA) Robert Scheidt | Great Britain (GBR) Ben Ainslie | Norway (NOR) Peer Moberg |
| 1996: Tornado details | Spain (ESP) Fernando León José Luis Ballester | Australia (AUS) Mitch Booth Andrew Landenberger | Brazil (BRA) Lars Grael Henrique Pellicano |
| 1996: Star details | Brazil (BRA) Torben Grael Marcelo Ferreira | Sweden (SWE) Hans Wallén Bobby Lohse | Australia (AUS) Colin Beashel David Giles |
| 1996: Soling details | 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 (BRA) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Spain (ESP) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Ukraine (UKR) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 | Denmark (DEN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Germany (GER) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Greece (GRE) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Hong Kong (HKG) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Poland (POL) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 10 | Australia (AUS) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Argentina (ARG) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Belgium (BEL) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Japan (JPN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | New Zealand (NZL) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Russia (RUS) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 | United States (USA) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 19 | Israel (ISR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | Italy (ITA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | Norway (NOR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | Portugal (POR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (22 entries) | Totals (22 entries) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |

## Remarks
### Wildcards

After the qualification was finished the following sailors were granted a wildcard:
* Algeria (ALG) – Mistral One Design Men, (No show)
* Guatemala (GUA) – Mistral One Design Men, Cristian Ruata (45th)
* Indonesia (INA) – Mistral One Design Men, I Gusti Made Oka Sulaksana (13th)
* Thailand (THA) – Mistral One Design Men, Arun Homraruen (21st)
* Guam (GUM) – Laser, Brett Chivers, (44th)
* San Marino (SMR) – Laser, Luca Belluzzi (56th)
* Sudan (SUD) – Laser, (No show)
* Cuba (CUB) – 470 Men, Pedro Fernández & Angel Alfredo Jimenez (26th)
* Sudan (SUD) – 470 Men, (No show)

### Incidents

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