If you’re a disabled sailor, you can forget the Olympics
THE PERFECT GIFT!
Give or treat yourself to a subscription to the print + digital Journal of Sailing and for only 69 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.
Black smoke. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has rejected an application by World Sailing (the world sailing federation) to readmit sailing as a discipline to the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games.
Sailing still excluded from 2028 Paralympics
Already excluded from the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Paralympics (following a decision that matured in 2018), athletes with disabilities will not be able to compete for medals. Participating in the Olympics is every sportsman’s dream. For now, para sailors are denied this dream, represented precisely by the Paralympics.
What happened? Sailing was “lost” among so many new disciplines that applied for admission (as many as 33 new ones were submitted, all of which were rejected because the 22 disclipines admitted were the same as those of Paris 2024), and the reasons for the “no” vote should be found, according to the IPC, in the lack of innovation in Paralympic sailing classes and a modest presence of female para athletes.
What will become of all the – very good – Italian athletes who have raced all these years on Paralympic classes, such as the single 2.4 mR (with the excellent results of our Antonio Squizzato), the Skud 18, monotype for double crew, and Sonar, for crew racing? In an interview, 20-year-old Davide Di Maria, who had won the World Paralympic Class RS Venture together with Fabrizio Olmi in 2019 (and whom we had honored in the 2020 Sailor of the Year), said the Paralympics is his dream. Like that of so many Italian para athletes who are making their bones on the aforementioned classes (and theHansa 303).
The numbers are there
Certainly, in recent years world sailing has not been sitting on its hands. World Sailing launched the Paralympic Sailing Development Program (PDP) after its exclusion following Rio 2016, involving hundreds and hundreds of para athletes from so many nations, from Cambodia to Iran, Italy to Malta.
After the “backthebid” campaign to turn the spotlight on Paralympic sailing in 2021, there are now as many as 41 active nations on five continents in Paralympic classes and 630 active para athletes registered with World Sailing.
So much for the much-vaunted inclusion.
Paralympics, the 22 disciplines admitted
For the record, there are currently 22 disciplines on the calendar for Los Angeles 2028:
1. Badminton
2. Boccia
3. Blind football
4. Goalball
5. Judo
6. Canoe
7. Riding
8. Tennistavolo
9. Wheelchair tennis
10. Fencing
11. Basketball
12. Archery
13. Athletics
14. Weightlifting
15. Sitting volleyball
16. Swimming
17. Rowing
18. Sharpshooting
19. Taekwondo
20. Triathlon
21. Wheelchair rugby
22. Cycling/Handbike
Let’s hope the waters are moving ahead of Brisbane 2032….
Share:
Are you already a subscriber?
Ultimi annunci
Our social
Sign up for our Newsletter
We give you a gift
Sailing, its stories, all boats, accessories. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the Sailing Newspaper editorial staff each week. Plus we give you one month of GdV digitally on PC, Tablet, Smartphone. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button. You will receive a code to activate your month of GdV for free!
You may also be interested in.
The charge of 124 very young Openskiff sailors in Calasetta!
Three days of sunshine, variable conditions, and a race course that showcased the future of sailing: the first leg of the OpenSkiff EuroChallenge 2025, hosted in Calasetta (Sant’Antioco Island, Sulcis), was able to combine sporting spectacle, hospitality and educational spirit,
All crazy for the legendary Flying Dutchman (and two Italians won world bronze)
There is an over-seventy-year-old boat that, to this day, still gathers a community of passionate sailors from all over the world, so much so that more than 60 crews showed up at the last World Class in Puerto Sherry, Cadiz,
Maccaferri Futura’s new Class 40: Luca Rosetti at the start of a super ocean season
The wait is over, another major Italian ocean project is about to take flight and has taken its first steps from Genoa where the technical launch of Luca Rosetti’s Class 40 Maccaferri Futura, a project-supported by Officine Maccaferri, a global
Sailing (flying) Ferrari is almost reality: John Elkann’s word
“Enzo Ferrari was always looking for the next challenge, just as we are today,” said John Elkann, Ferrari’s chairman, at the annual shareholders’ meeting, where he anticipated the now imminent entry into the world of sailing as well. It is