France, Germany Great Britain lead qualification numbers for Paris 2024 Olympic Games
by World Sailing 29 Apr 12:14 BST
Last Chance Regatta at Hyères, France © Sailing Energy / Semaine Olympique Française
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will see at least 63 nations represented across 10 events this summer after qualifying concluded at the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères in the south of France.
The action will begin in Marseille from July 28th and every continent will be represented with sailors from across the world earning 326 places between the Sailing World Championships in The Hague last August to the Last Chance Regatta held as part of the Semaine Olympique Française.
Four Universality Places will be awarded by the IOC's Tripartite Commission - two in the women's dinghy ILCA 6 and two in the men's dinghy ILCA 7 - in the coming weeks to bring the total athlete numbers to 330 and likely taking sailing past the 65 nations represented at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Host nation France, Germany and Great Britain are the only countries to have qualified a boat in all 10 events in a regatta which will feature the men's kite and women's kite for the first time as well as a debut for the foiling windsurfer, the iQFOiL.
Great Britain - who lead the all-time sailing Olympic medal table - needed the Last Chance Regatta to fill their 10th place with Connor Bainbridge earning a berth in the men's kite with a dominant performance in Hyères.
France - who hosted the first Olympic sailing at the 1900 Games when three sailors shared five gold medals between them - will hope to add to the 49 medals they have earned in Olympic history.
Germany have not won an Olympic gold in the sport since Jochen Schümann, Thomas Flach and Bernd Jäkel won the three-person keelboat in 1996 but being able to put so many boats on the water means they will hope to improve on that record.
China, Italy, Spain and the United States each have nine places.
The inclusion of the Formula Kite class for the first time has provided Mauritius with the opportunity to qualify two athletes, trebling their all-time Olympic representation in one Games following Marie Menage and her exploits in the women's windsurfing in 1992.
The Last Chance Regatta concluded with six of the eight men's and women's dinghy Olympic places on offer at the Last Chance Regatta claimed by sailors supported by the World Sailing Emerging Nations Program.
The six brought the overall number of Emerging Nations Program (ENP) sailors who will be heading to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to 21, a rise from eight at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.
See the full qualified nations table for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games here.
Find out more about World Sailing's Training and Development Strategy here.