Sailing at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possible 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program. The Sailing program of 2012 consisted of a total of eight sailing classes (ten disciplines). Eleven Fleet races were scheduled from 29 July 2012 to 11 August 2012 of the coast at Weymouth Bay for each event except for the 49er and the Elliott 6m. For the 49er a total of 16 races were scheduled. Of the 11 (16) races, 10 (15) were scheduled as opening races and the last one as medal race. For the Elliott 6m a series of match races was scheduled. The sailing was done on different types of courses.

Venue

Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy
Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy
General information
Status	Completed
Address	Osprey Quay
Town or city	Portland,
Country	Dorset DT5 1SA
Coordinates	50°34′19″N 2°27′21″W
Elevation	Sealevel
Opened	2008
Inaugurated	Improvements to the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy were ready for competition by 2008. The new slipway, moorings and other facilities have already been used for several international events.
Client	LOCOG
Owner	Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy
Other information
Seating type	Standing
Seating capacity	17,400

According to the IOC statutes the contests in all sport disciplines must be held either in, or as close as possible to the city which the IOC has chosen. Among others, an exception is made for the Olympic sailing events, which customarily must be staged on the open sea. On account of this principle, Weymouth and Portland was selected for the honor to carry out the Olympic yachting regattas. For that purpose the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy was reconstructed.

Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA)

The land based part of the WPNSA includes:

• Administrative and game management center
• Media center
• The "Hangar" for measurement, social events and logistic center.
• (Inter)National sailing center
• Craning, mooring and slipway facilities

Course areas

A total of five race areas were set on Weymouth Bay of the coast of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The exclusion area was limited by a fictive line between Portland and the mainland. All racing took place within this exclusion zone. The five course areas were positioned according to the table below the map but could be moved anywhere within the exclusion zone.

Olympic Course Areas 2012.
Portland Harbour ( (P):) 50° 35.19’ N, 02° 26.54’ W
Nothe Harbour ( (N):) 50° 36.18’ N 02° 25.98’ W
Weymouth Bay West ( (W):) 50° 37.18’ N 02° 23.55’ W
Weymouth Bay South ( (S):) 50° 35.71’ N 02° 22.08’ W
Weymouth Bay East ( (E):) 50° 36.58’ N 02° 19.70’ W

Competition

Qualification

Further information: Sailing at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualification

Fifty-seven nations qualified for the sailing events and a further six were allocated places not taken up by qualified nations to give a total of 63 nations participating. The only countries to have qualified in all events were France, New Zealand, the USA and the hosts, Great Britain; New Zealand declined to take up their place in the Women's RS-X.

Overview

Continents	Countries	Classes	Boats	Male	Female
6	63	10	273	237	143

Continents

• Africa
• Asia
• Oceania
• Europe
• North America
• South America

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1972 Olympic Games.
Blue: Water
Gray: Never participated in OG
Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG
Green: Country participated for the first time
Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games
Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Argentina (ARG)  Australia (AUS)  Austria (AUT)  Belgium (BEL)  Bermuda (BER)  Belarus (BLR)  Brazil (BRA)  Bulgaria (BUL)  Canada (CAN)  Chile (CHI)  China (CHN)  Cook Islands (COK)  Colombia (COL)  Croatia (CRO)  Cyprus (CYP)  Czech Republic (CZE)  Denmark (DEN)  Egypt (EGY)  Spain (ESP)  Estonia (EST)  Finland (FIN)  France (FRA)  Great Britain (GBR)  Germany (GER)  Greece (GRE)  Guatemala (GUA)  Hong Kong (HKG)  Hungary (HUN)  Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA)  Ireland (IRL)  Israel (ISR)  Virgin Islands (ISV)  Italy (ITA)  Japan (JPN)  Kyrgyzstan (KGZ)  South Korea (KOR)  Saint Lucia (LCA)  Lithuania (LTU)  Malaysia (MAS)  Mexico (MEX)  Montenegro (MNE)  Monaco (MON)  Netherlands (NED)  Norway (NOR)  New Zealand (NZL)  Peru (PER)  Poland (POL)  Portugal (POR)  South Africa (RSA)  Russia (RUS)  Singapore (SIN)  Slovenia (SLO)  Switzerland (SUI)  Sweden (SWE)  Thailand (THA)  Chinese Taipei (TPE)  Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)  Tunisia (TUN)  Turkey (TUR)  Ukraine (UKR)  Uruguay (URU)  United States (USA)  Venezuela (VEN)

Classes (equipment)

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jib/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
RS:X	Sailboard		1	-	+	-	-	2008	2
RS:X	Sailboard		1	-	+	-	-	2008	2
Laser Radial	Dinghy		1	-	+	-	-	2008	2
Laser	Dinghy		1	-	+	-	-	1996	5
Finn	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1952	16
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1988	7
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1976	10
49er	Dinghy		2	2	+	+	+	2000	4
Elliott 6m	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	2012	1
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	18

2012 Olympic Classes designs

• 

Race schedule

●

Opening ceremony

●

Practice race

●

Race

●

Medal race

●

Closing ceremony

Date	July						August
	26 Thu	27 Fri	28 Sat	29 Sun	30 Mon	31 Tue	1 Wed	2 Thu	3 Fri	4 Sat	5 Sun	6 Mon	7 Tue	8 Wed	9 Thu	10 Fri	11 Sat	12 Sun
Women's Men's	●		● ● ●	● ● ●	● ●		●	●
Women's Men's				R 2 2	2 RR 2 2 2 2	2 2 RR 2 2 2 2 2	2 2 RR 2 2 2	2 RR 2 2 2 2 2	2 2 2 2 2 3 2	2 2 2 RR 2 2 2	2 2 2 2	2 2	2 KO 2	2 KO	KO	KO
Women's Men's											MR MR	MR MR	MR MR	MR	MR	MR	FP
Total gold medals											2	2	2	1	1	1	1
Ceremonies		●																●
Legend: Matchracing RR = Round Robin phase KO = Knockout phase FP = Finals & Petite Finals Fleetracing MR = Medal races

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
RS:X	Dorian van Rijsselberghe  Netherlands	Nick Dempsey  Great Britain	Przemysław Miarczyński  France
Laser	Tom Slingsby  Australia	Pavlos Kontides  Cyprus	Rasmus Myrgren  Sweden
Finn	Ben Ainslie  Great Britain	Jonas Høgh-Christensen  Denmark	Jonathan Lobert  France
470	Australia (AUS) Mathew Belcher Malcolm Page	Great Britain (GBR) Luke Patience Stuart Bithell	Argentina (ARG) Lucas Calabrese Juan de la Fuente
Star	Sweden (SWE) Fredrik Lööf Max Salminen	Great Britain (GBR) Iain Percy Andrew Simpson	Brazil (BRA) Robert Scheidt Bruno Prada
49er	Australia (AUS) Nathan Outteridge Iain Jensen	New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling Blair Tuke	Denmark (DEN) Allan Nørregaard Peter Lang

Women's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
RS:X	Marina Alabau  Spain	Tuuli Petäjä  Finland	Zofia Klepacka  Poland
Laser Radial	Xu Lijia  China	Marit Bouwmeester  Netherlands	Evi Van Acker  Belgium
470	New Zealand (NZL) Jo Aleh Polly Powrie	Great Britain (GBR) Hannah Mills Saskia Clark	Netherlands (NED) Lisa Westerhof Lobke Berkhout
Elliott 6m	Spain (ESP) Támara Echegoyen Ángela Pumariega Sofía Toro	Australia (AUS) Olivia Price Nina Curtis Lucinda Whitty	Finland (FIN) Silja Lehtinen Silja Kanerva Mikaela Wulff

Medal table

1	Australia (AUS)	3	1	0	4
2	Spain (ESP)	2	0	0	2
3	Great Britain (GBR)	1	4	0	5
4	Netherlands (NED)	1	1	1	3
5	New Zealand (NZL)	1	1	0	2
6	Sweden (SWE)	1	0	1	2
7	China (CHN)	1	0	0	1
8	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	1	2
	Finland (FIN)	0	1	1	2
10	Cyprus (CYP)	0	1	0	1
11	Poland (POL)	0	0	2	2
12	Argentina (ARG)	0	0	1	1
	Belgium (BEL)	0	0	1	1
	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	France (FRA)	0	0	1	1
Total		10	10	10	30

Further reading

• "Digital Library Collection (Official Olympic Reports 1896 - 2008)". Digital Library Collection at la84.org. la84foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
• "London 2012". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.