# Sailing at the 1992 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 1992 consisted of a total of ten sailing classes (disciplines). For each class races were scheduled from 27 July 1992 to 4 August 1992 of the coast of Barcelona, Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.

## 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. The weather conditions in Barcelona were found suitable for sailing. The waterfront of Barcelona was completely restructured for the Olympics. The Olympic port became one of the key Olympic areas of Barcelona.
The Olympic sailing competition was held in the Mediterranean waters outside the Olympic Harbor. The new harbor was designed to be the base for the Olympic sailors and a key factor in the opening up of the city to the sea. This was achieved by a Special Town Plan for the “Parc de Mar” Area including a harbor which satisfy the requirements of sailors and organizers. The new harbor serves after the Games as a marina.
A total of five race areas were created on the Mediterranean Sea.

## Competition
### Overview

| Continents | Countries | Classes | Boats | Male | Female |
| 6 | 60 | 10 | 256 | 357 | 84 |

### Continents

* Africa
* Asia
* Australian continent
* Europe
* North America
* South America

### Countries

| Netherlands Antilles (AHO) | Angola (ANG) | Antigua and Barbuda (ANT) |
| Argentina (ARG) | Aruba (ARU) | Australia (AUS) |
| Austria (AUT) | Bahamas (BAH) | Barbados (BAR) |
| Belgium (BEL) | Bermuda (BER) | Brazil (BRA) |
| Canada (CAN) | Cayman Islands (CAY) | Chile (CHI) |
| China (CHN) | Croatia (CRO) | Denmark (DEN) |
| Djibouti (DJI) | Spain (ESP) | Estonia (EST) |
| Unified Team (EUN) | Fiji (FIJ) | Finland (FIN) |
| France (FRA) | Great Britain (GBR) | Germany (GER) |
| Guam (GUM) | Hong Kong (HKG) | Hungary (HUN) |
| Ireland (IRL) | Israel (ISR) | Virgin Islands (ISV) |
| Italy (ITA) | British Virgin Islands (IVB) | Japan (JPN) |
| South Korea (KOR) | Latvia (LAT) | Mexico (MEX) |
| Malta (MLT) | Mauritius (MRI) | Netherlands (NED) |
| Norway (NOR) | New Zealand (NZL) | Philippines (PHI) |
| Papua New Guinea (PNG) | Poland (POL) | Portugal (POR) |
| Puerto Rico (PUR) | South Africa (RSA) | Seychelles (SEY) |
| Slovenia (SLO) | Switzerland (SUI) | Sweden (SWE) |
| Czechoslovakia (TCH) | Thailand (THA) | Tunisia (TUN) |
| Turkey (TUR) | Uruguay (URU) | United States (USA) |
| Lithuania (LTU) | |

### Classes (equipment)

| Class | Type | Sailors | Trapeze | Mainsail | Jibb/Genoa | Spinnaker | First OG | Olympics so far |
| Lechner A390 | windsurf | 1 | 0 | + | - | - | 1992 | 1 |
| Lechner A390 | windsurf | 1 | 0 | + | - | - | 1992 | 1 |
| Europe | Dinghy | 1 | 0 | + | - | - | 1992 | 1 |
| Finn | Dinghy | 1 | 0 | + | - | - | 1952 | 11 |
| 470 | Dinghy | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1988 | 2 |
| 470 | Dinghy | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1976 | 5 |
| Flying Dutchman | Dinghy | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1960 | 9 |
| Tornado | Catamaran | 2 | 1 | + | + | - | 1976 | 5 |
| Star | Keelboat | 2 | 1 | + | + | + | 1932 | 14 |
| Soling | Keelboat | 3 | 0 | + | + | + | 1972 | 6 |

## Medal summary
### Women's Events

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1992: Women's Lechner A-390 details | New Zealand (NZL) Barbara Kendall | China (CHN) Zhang Xiaodong | Netherlands (NED) Dorien de Vries |
| 1992: Europe details | Norway (NOR) Linda Cerup-Simonsen | Spain (ESP) Natalia Vía Dufresne | United States (USA) Julia Trotman |
| 1992: Women's 470 details | Spain (ESP) Theresa Zabell Patricia Guerra | New Zealand (NZL) Leslie Egnot Jan Shearer | United States (USA) Jennifer Isler Pamela Healy |

### Men's Events

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1992: Men's Lechner A-390 details | France (FRA) Franck David | United States (USA) Mike Gebhardt | Australia (AUS) Lars Kleppich |
| 1992: Finn details | Spain (ESP) José van der Ploeg | United States (USA) Brian Ledbetter | New Zealand (NZL) Craig Monk |
| 1992: Men's 470 details | Spain (ESP) Jordi Calafat Francisco Sanchez | United States (USA) Morgan Reeser Kevin Burnham | Estonia (EST) Tõnu Tõniste Toomas Tõniste |

### Mixed Events

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| 1992: Flying Dutchman details | Spain (ESP) Luis Doreste Domingo Manrique | United States (USA) Paul Foerster Stephen Bourdow | Denmark (DEN) Jørgen Bojsen-Møller Jens Bojsen-Møller |
| 1992: Tornado details | France (FRA) Yves Loday Nicolas Hénard | United States (USA) Randy Smyth Keith Notary | Australia (AUS) Mitch Booth John Forbes |
| 1992: Star details | United States (USA) Mark Reynolds Harold Haenel | New Zealand (NZL) Rod Davis Don Cowie | Canada (CAN) Ross MacDonald Eric Jespersen |
| 1992: Soling details | Denmark (DEN) Jesper Bank Steen Secher Jesper Seier | United States (USA) Kevin Mahaney Jim Brady Doug Kern | Great Britain (GBR) Lawrie Smith Robert Cruikshank Ossie Stewart |

## Medal table

* Host nation (Spain)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Spain (ESP)* | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 2 | France (FRA) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 | United States (USA) | 1 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 | New Zealand (NZL) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | Denmark (DEN) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Norway (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | China (CHN) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Australia (AUS) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Canada (CAN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Estonia (EST) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (12 entries) | Totals (12 entries) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |

## Further information
### Sailing

* It was the first Olympic sailing contest where, besides fleet racing, a combination format of fleetracing and match racing was also used. Soling employed this latter format.

### Sailors

During the sailing regattas at the 1992 Summer Olympics the following people notable outside sailing took part:
* Royalty
** Spain (ESP), Prince Felipe of Spain (later King Felipe VI), as midperson in the Soling
* In Soling: Felipe VI King of Spain