# Sailing at the 2012 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 cancelled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. Sailing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held 29 July – 11 August 2012 at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in Weymouth. The 2012 sailing program consisted of a total of ten events (eight classes). Eleven fleet races were scheduled off the coast at Weymouth Bay for each event, except for the 49er and the Elliott 6m classes. For the 49er class, a total of 16 races were scheduled. Of the 11 (16) races, 10 (15) were scheduled as opening races and the last one as medal race. For the Elliott 6m a series of match races was scheduled. The sailing was done on different types of courses.

## 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. Among others, an exception is made for the Olympic sailing events, which customarily must be staged on the open sea. On account of this principle, Weymouth and Portland was selected for the honor to carry out the Olympic yachting regattas. For that purpose the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy was reconstructed.

### Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA)

The land based part of the WPNSA includes:
* Administrative and game management center
* Media center
* The "Hangar" for measurement, social events and logistic center.
* (Inter)National sailing center
* Craning, mooring and slipway facilities

### Course areas

A total of five race areas were set on Weymouth Bay of the coast of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The exclusion area was limited by a fictive line between Portland and the mainland. All racing took place within this exclusion zone. The five course areas were positioned according to the table below the map but could be moved anywhere within the exclusion zone.

## Competition
### Qualification

Fifty-seven nations qualified for the sailing events and a further six were allocated places not taken up by qualified nations to give a total of 63 nations participating. The only countries to have qualified in all events were France, New Zealand, the US and the hosts, Great Britain; New Zealand declined to take up their place in the Women's RS-X.

### Overview

| Continents | Countries | Classes | Boats | Male | Female |
| 6 | 63 | 10 | 273 | 237 | 143 |

### Continents

* Africa
* Asia
* Oceania
* Europe
* North America
* South America

### Countries

| Argentina (ARG) | Australia (AUS) | Austria (AUT) | Belgium (BEL) |
| Bermuda (BER) | Belarus (BLR) | Brazil (BRA) | Bulgaria (BUL) |
| Canada (CAN) | Chile (CHI) | China (CHN) | Cook Islands (COK) |
| Colombia (COL) | Croatia (CRO) | Cyprus (CYP) | Czech Republic (CZE) |
| Denmark (DEN) | Egypt (EGY) | Spain (ESP) | Estonia (EST) |
| Finland (FIN) | France (FRA) | Great Britain (GBR) | Germany (GER) |
| Greece (GRE) | Guatemala (GUA) | Hong Kong (HKG) | Hungary (HUN) |
| Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA) | Ireland (IRL) | Israel (ISR) | Virgin Islands (ISV) |
| Italy (ITA) | Japan (JPN) | Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) | South Korea (KOR) |
| Saint Lucia (LCA) | Lithuania (LTU) | Malaysia (MAS) | Mexico (MEX) |
| Montenegro (MNE) | Monaco (MON) | Netherlands (NED) | Norway (NOR) |
| New Zealand (NZL) | Peru (PER) | Poland (POL) | Portugal (POR) |
| South Africa (RSA) | Russia (RUS) | Singapore (SIN) | Slovenia (SLO) |
| Switzerland (SUI) | Sweden (SWE) | Thailand (THA) | Chinese Taipei (TPE) |
| Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) | Tunisia (TUN) | Turkey (TUR) | Ukraine (UKR) |
| Uruguay (URU) | United States (USA) | Venezuela (VEN) |

### Classes (equipment)

| Class | Type | Sailors | Trapeze | Mainsail | Jib/Genoa | Spinnaker | First OG | Olympics so far |
| RS:X | Sailboard | 1 | - | + | - | - | 2008 | 2 |
| RS:X | Sailboard | 1 | - | + | - | - | 2008 | 2 |
| Laser Radial | Dinghy | 1 | - | + | - | - | 2008 | 2 |
| Laser | Dinghy | 1 | - | + | - | - | 1996 | 5 |
| Finn | Dinghy | 1 | 0 | + | – | – | 1952 | 16 |
| 470 | Dinghy | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1988 | 7 |
| 470 | Dinghy | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1976 | 10 |
| 49er | Dinghy | 2 | 2 | + | + | + | 2000 | 4 |
| Elliott 6m | Keelboat | 3 | 0 | + | + | + | 2012 | 1 |
| Star | Keelboat | 2 | 0 | + | + | – | 1932 | 18 |

## Race schedule

| ● | Opening ceremony | ● | Practice race | ● | Race | ● | Medal race | ● | Closing ceremony |
| Date | July | July | July | July | July | July | August | August | August | August | August | August | August | August | August | August | August | August |
| Date | 26 Thu | 27 Fri | 28 Sat | 29 Sun | 30 Mon | 31 Tue | 1 Wed | 2 Thu | 3 Fri | 4 Sat | 5 Sun | 6 Mon | 7 Tue | 8 Wed | 9 Thu | 10 Fri | 11 Sat | 12 Sun |
| Women's Men's | ● | | ● ● ● | ● ● ● | ● ● | | ● | ● | | | | | | | | | | |
| Women's Men's | | | | R 2 2 | 2 RR 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 RR 2 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 RR 2 2 2 | 2 RR 2 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 | 2 2 2 RR 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 | 2 KO 2 | 2 KO | KO | KO | | |
| Women's Men's | | | | | | | | | | | MR MR | MR MR | MR MR | MR | MR | MR | FP | |
| Total gold medals | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Ceremonies | | ● | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ● |
| Legend: Matchracing RR = Round Robin phase KO = Knockout phase FP = Finals & Petite Finals Fleetracing MR = Medal races |

## Medal summary
### Men's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| RS:X details | Dorian van Rijsselberghe Netherlands | Nick Dempsey Great Britain | Przemysław Miarczyński Poland |
| Laser details | Tom Slingsby Australia | Pavlos Kontides Cyprus | Rasmus Myrgren Sweden |
| Finn details | Ben Ainslie Great Britain | Jonas Høgh-Christensen Denmark | Jonathan Lobert France |
| 470 details | Australia (AUS) Mathew Belcher Malcolm Page | Great Britain (GBR) Luke Patience Stuart Bithell | Argentina (ARG) Lucas Calabrese Juan de la Fuente |
| Star details | Sweden (SWE) Fredrik Lööf Max Salminen | Great Britain (GBR) Iain Percy Andrew Simpson | Brazil (BRA) Robert Scheidt Bruno Prada |
| 49er details | Australia (AUS) Nathan Outteridge Iain Jensen | New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling Blair Tuke | Denmark (DEN) Allan Nørregaard Peter Lang |

### Women's events

| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| RS:X details | Marina Alabau Spain | Tuuli Petäjä Finland | Zofia Klepacka Poland |
| Laser Radial details | Xu Lijia China | Marit Bouwmeester Netherlands | Evi Van Acker Belgium |
| 470 details | New Zealand (NZL) Jo Aleh Polly Powrie | Great Britain (GBR) Hannah Mills Saskia Clark | Netherlands (NED) Lisa Westerhof Lobke Berkhout |
| Elliott 6m details | Spain (ESP) Támara Echegoyen Ángela Pumariega Sofía Toro | Australia (AUS) Olivia Price Nina Curtis Lucinda Whitty | Finland (FIN) Silja Lehtinen Silja Kanerva Mikaela Wulff |

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Australia (AUS) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 2 | Spain (ESP) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | Great Britain (GBR) | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | Netherlands (NED) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | New Zealand (NZL) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | China (CHN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Denmark (DEN) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Finland (FIN) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Cyprus (CYP) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Poland (POL) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 12 | Argentina (ARG) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Belgium (BEL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Brazil (BRA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | France (FRA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (15 entries) | Totals (15 entries) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |