Sailing Olympics, Emma Wilson don’t back down and try again!

Those of you who watched the iQFOiL final that handed over the gold to our Marta Maggetti at the Olympics of sailing in Marseille, will also have seen the cameras pointed, at the end of the regatta, at British athlete Emma Wilson in tears after her bronze medal.

Sailing Olympics, the Emma Wilson case

The reason for the crying is quickly explained: Wilson literally dominated the “opening series,” winning eight races out of fourteen total races.

Sailing Olympics, the “special” format iQFOiL

The format of the iQFOiL Flying Boards, however, is that after the four days of trials (with conventional courses, slalom and endurance trials) everything changes.
The quarterfinals are reserved for athletes so far ranked from fourth to tenth.
The top two in this “playoff” (with zero score) are selected for the semifinals, which are played in a four-way tie, along with the second and third overall.
The final is between the top two finishers in the semifinal and the leader in the overall standings.
The podium is already known before going into the water, only the color of each athlete’s medal to be determined.

“I’m retiring from the sport.”

Wilson took to the water as the overwhelming favorite and instead could not hold a candle to Italy’s Marta Maggetti and Israel’s Sharon Kantor.
At the press conference, the Englishwoman said she wanted to retire from iQFOiL (at only 25 years old!) and there was no shortage of barbs about the format of the sailboard races. If the opponents came into the final “hot,” after competing in the semifinals, the Englishwoman said, she was “cold.”“I think it’s obvious that I was at a disadvantage, and I think the race officials should think about that, and think about people’s mental health as well,” she concluded, referring to the very strong pressure the finalist athlete is under.
“It’s not fair to put people in this condition every time. Here in Marseille I made it to the final with a 30-point lead over my opponents.
At the World Championships (in Lanzarote Wilson won 15 of the 20 races in the opening series, except for finishing second in the final) I had 60!
Ithink I’m done with the sport.”

It’s sports, beauty

While Emma Wilson’s reaction is perfectly understandable (who wouldn’t be frustrated, putting herself in her shoes, after sacrificing four years of her life for an Olympic medal), it must be said that the format of the regattas was clear from the start and was accepted by all athletes.
And this is not unique to sailboards. Think of the Serie B football playoffs for promotion to the top league, in which six teams participate, with two of them-the third and fourth in the standings after finishing the championship-directly in the semifinals, and the other four-the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-qualifying in the preliminaries in a single competition to decide the semifinal picture.
It can thus happen that a team, after playing a very good championship and finishing in third place, fails to make it to the Serie A, perhaps beaten in the playoff final by the very eighth-ranked team.
This is just one of many examples. And what about, staying even closer, the America’s Cup, where the defender takes to the water only for the final match, against the winning challenger of the Louis Vuitton Cup?
Or of the SailGP, which has exactly the same iQFOiL format (in that case with money up for grabs)? Once one accepts the rules, one would be inclined to say, “that’s sport, beautiful.”

A medal secured

Not to mention that the iQFOiL format, however, stipulates that the winner of the Olympic opening series already has a medal in their pocket.
While, as Wilson argues, there is the undoubted psychological pressure, it should be counterbalanced by the “levity” for having already made it (an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal, whatever color it is!).
The Olympics is a competition in itself, where often the person who can handle it better psychologically has the upper hand. If we could give one piece of advice to the very strong Emma Wilson: don’t retreat Emma!
Work on your mindset to better handle stress in “aut-aut” situations and, next time, it won’t just be bronze.

Will anything change?

We will see if the affair will have any aftermath: in the men’s board, there was a similar incident as well, with French athlete Nicolas Guyard, 15th finalist, explaining that he did not give 100 percent frustrated by the way the races were run by the race committee complaining of unprofessionalism on the part of World Sailing.
This is the iQFOiL’s first time at the Sailing Olympics since the flying board took the place of the RS:X.
Could there be adjustments in terms of format and regulations?
It is not to be ruled out. It should also be said that the regattas, thanks to this format, to follow are fun and easy to understand even for a non-expert audience. The three-way final is spectacular and has very high media potential. Given that sailing is in danger of having medals cut off by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) because its disciplines are considered untelevised (raise your hand if you haven’t been bored watching the ILCA 6 and 7, formerly Laser, races), could the iQFOiL, with its flying boards, speeds over 25 knots, transverse starts, its “tranchant” format, point the way to the sailing of the future?

Eugene Ruocco

• Read all our news about the sailing Olympics

How to follow the sailing Olympics live

You can follow the Sailing Olympics “live” if you have a subscription to Discovery Plus: RAI and other pay channels will broadcast any medal races if there are real medal chances.
Tofind out everything about the schedule, we recommend you check the official World Sailing schedule while to be updated on the results in real time at this link all the rankings. There is also a dedicated page on the Sport Sailing website, Where to follow live race tracking.

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Olympics, how regattas work

Depending on the classes competing(everything you need to know about the classes here), athletes competing in the Marseille Olympics must race for 4, 5 or 6 days.
Each regatta lasts between 15 and 50 minutes depending on the type of boat. In the case of dinghies, skiffs and catamarans (470, ILCA, Nacra 17, 49er and 49er FX) athletes are awarded points equal to their placing in their respective races.
The first is awarded one point, the second two points, and so on.
At the end of the first 4-5 days of racing, the games are “almost done.”
The top 10 ranked crews participate in the very final, called the Medal Race.
Here the rules change, because the points won are worth double: the first gets 2 points, the second 4, and so on.
If you get to the Medal Race with the “short” ranking, this last round is decisive.
In the end, the podium is composed of the athletes/crew with the lowest total number of points. The racing format is different for iQFOil boards and Formula Kite.
In the boards, there are four days of competition and the spots will be different from day to day.
Athletes must alternate between conventional courses, slalom and endurance trials.
In the latter, the points won count double.
The final day is decisive and very intense.
The quarterfinals are reserved for athletes so far ranked from fourth to tenth.
The top two from this “playoff” are selected for the semifinals, which are played in a four-way tie, along with the second and third overall.
The very final is between the top two finishers of the semifinal and the leader of the overall ranking.
The podium is already known before going into the water, only the color of each athlete’s medal to be determined. On the Kites, on the other hand, after four days of racing, the top 10 qualify for the Medal Race.
From then on, only the third through 10th place finishers race in the first phase of the Medal.
The top two from this phase then join the first and second overall for the final four.
In the final, each individual race win is worth one point.
The first to reach 3 points wins the gold medal.