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Human Interest
Courtesy of Sailing Scuttlebutt #2485 Nov. 29, 2007
Every four years or so I ask the same question: why, oh why do we even care what classes are in the Olympics? So no multihulls are in the 2012 Games; does that mean some teenagers in a Hobie 16 won't be able to fly a hull on Biscayne Bay? So there are only two keelboat sciplines; does that mean some adults in a Tartan Ten won't be able to fly a kite on Lake Michigan?
I know a few Olympic medallists, dozens of Olympic veterans and a whole slew of folks who have sailed an Olympic-class boat (myself and the young Curmudgeon among them); would not the best among them have been just as good in whatever classes or events they might have sailed?
Olympic sailing has for years been the spot on the flea on the tail of the dog of the sport of sailing; it is simultaneously the elephant in the room. An inordinate amount of time, energy, conversation - - yes, and money -- is being spent on what is, after all, a regatta that is sailed once every four years. Time has come for us to just get over this. Let's stop caring what boats will sail in the Olympic Regatta and get back the reasons we really got into this sport in the first place: the pleasure of the sailing, the thrill of the competition, and the camaraderie of our fellow sailors.
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