RYA leads the call for Olympic rethink

The Royal Yachting Association is leading the push to have the Events for the 2012 Olympic Games reconsidered by the International Sailing Federation.

Following the controversial decision by ISAF Council during its annual conference last month, at which it opted not to include a modern high performance dinghy for women, dropped the multihull event and introduced a match racing format for the women’s keelboat event, the RYA has written to ISAF President Goran Petersson asking for the decision to be reconsidered.

The RYA believes that the decisions taken are not in the best interests of the sport of sailing throughout the world, and requests that ISAF review its decision on three grounds:

• That the decisions weaken sailing and do not comply with International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines

• That the current decisions will bring fewer nations and young sailors into the sport of sailing

• That an amendment to the previously agreed voting procedure was hasty, and the process ultimately used for selecting events was flawed

The RYA is requesting that ISAF refrains from nominating the list of Events for 2012 to the IOC on 18 March, and instead reconsiders its voting process and Events decision at its Council meeting in May 2008.