BALANCE OF THE PINNACLE
The path to gender equity in the Olympics has been a long and twisted one, but when the sailors assemble in Marseille next year, we’ll finally see what’s been a long time coming.
the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be the first time there will be gender equity in the sailing competition determined by an equal number of male and female athletes, along with the number of medals that can be won, a momentous achievement that took 50 years of effort by sailing’s leadership and recognition by the International Olympic Committee. With the benefit of hindsight, one might wonder why gender equity in sailing wasn’t automatic when the modern Games were reestablished in 1896. A good question for historians, but we are in a better place now.
The opportunities for women have grown substantially over the past few decades, and the performance of female sailors has improved as a direct result. The days when women had limited opportunities are behind us, which is quite amazing given the Adams Cup for the North American Women’s Championship was once one of a few top-tier regattas in the United States specifically for women. It was extremely rare for a woman to compete in the Olympic Games, and I was around for the start of the discussion to include a separate class for women in the Olympics. The year was 1975. I was the 25-year-old coach of the American squad that raced in the newly created European Women’s Championship in Mataró, Spain. The small seaport resort was about 40 miles northeast of Barcelona. The US entered two crews in both the singlehanded and doublehanded disciplines.
One evening late in the regatta, a forum was held to discuss the possibility of creating a Women’s World Championship and adding a class dedicated for women in the Olympic Games. It sounded like a bold concept at the time. Surprisingly, several women spoke out against the idea. Their message was they didn’t want a separate division; they wanted the opportunity to race against men. The conclusion at the end of the long session was to meet again one year later and propose the concept to the International Yacht Racing Union.
The leadership of the IYRU took an interest in the proposal and decided to host a test regatta in 1977 as a prelude to a Women’s World Championship. The regatta was scheduled for July 1977 at Hayling Island located just east of Portsmouth, England, and the Solent. The organizers believed the International 470 class was too challenging for women, so they decided to host the regatta in International 420s and Lasers. Nineteen countries were represented, with some entering more than one crew per class. There were 26 International 420s and 31 Lasers that year; as an aside, the sponsor of the event was a company called SorboSkin, which made wetsuit material.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm for it when they thought there ought to be separate events for women in the
Olympics,” says Jan Chance O’Malley, an Adams Cup winner from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, who qualified to represent the US alongside her sister-in-law Pat O’Malley. They had been racing 470s with no problem and had to adapt to the smaller 420. Caroline “Poppy” Truman, from San Francisco, raced in the singlehanded Laser class. The wind throughout the week ranged from nonexistent to gale force off Hayling Island, and the American sailors were very competitive. Truman, who was 16 at the time, finished second in the Laser behind Australian Lyndall Coxon.
The battle in the 420 class was epic between the O’Malleys and a Great Britain college student, 19-year-old Cathy Foster, and her crew Wendy Hilder. The lead went back and forth between the US and GBR every race until the team that won the final race between the two boats would win the championship. The crews waited for four long hours on the water for the wind to build. The race finally got underway at 3 in the afternoon. The battle came down to the final leg, a final sprint to the finish line.
“The wind had increased in strength by now to around a Force 3,” wrote an uncredited British journalist reporting on the event. “Both Cathy and Jan were sailing extremely well, and it wasn’t until the last few seconds that this battle was won by the American pair. Both boats were approaching the (finish) line on port tack—neck and neck—but it was the timing of Jan’s final tack that won them the coveted award. Her tack was covered instantaneously by Cathy, but even so, being that little bit farther from the line meant that Jan crossed it just one second ahead.”
The close racing got the attention of the IYRU, which subsequently announced that an official Women’s World Championship would take place the following year, in 1978. Jan O’Malley was named US Sailing’s Yachtswoman of the Year for the 1977 victory. Sam Merrick, chair of the Olympic Yachting Committee at the time, recognized O’Malley’s achievement and recruited her to serve on his committee for the 1984 Games. She was chair of US Sailing’s Class Racing Committee and asked to represent the US at the IYRU meetings, where the concept of a women’s division at the Olympics was going to be discussed. O’Malley adds: “Frieda Vollebrecht was chair of the IYRU with the Sailing Committee. She was championing the separate women’s events in the Olympics.”
Over the next four years, the IYRU committee built its case and forwarded a proposal to the IOC for approval. The IOC was adding more women’s sports in the Olympics and agreed to designate a few classes as “open” for the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The word “open” meant both men and women could compete in the same class. It was a small step forward. At the LA Games, exactly two women took the challenge. Cathy Foster, with a male crew, Peter Newlands, represented Great Britain in the 470 class. Trine Elvström crewed for her 58-year-old father, Paul, in the Tornado. Foster finished a respectful seventh in the Games, including winning one race. The Elvströms finished fourth, less than one point from a medal.
The open designation was a modest step, but clearly it didn’t help many women sail in the Olympics. For the 1988 Games in Pusan, South Korea, the IYRU decided to include a class dedicated for women. Americans Alison Jolly and Lynne Shore won the gold medal in a very windy Olympic regatta. The Soling, Star, Tornado and Flying Dutchman classes were open events, but I found only one woman on the crew list: Trine Elvström, who raced again with her father in the Tornado class. She was the only woman to compete in an open class in 1988. In 1992, the IOC added two more women’s-only classes: the Europe Dinghy and the Lechner sailboard. No woman competed in any open class in 1992. The same trend continued until 2004, when the three-person Yngling keelboat was added for women. The open classes were devoid of female competitors. For the London 2012 Games, the women’s keelboat discipline was changed to match racing in an Elliott 6m, and the open designation was dropped for the first time.
For the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a “mixed” class was added, requiring one man and one woman to race aboard a Nacra 17 catamaran. The event was hugely popular. Interestingly, five of the 20 teams had women helming that year. Gemma Jones and her crew, Jason Saunders, finished fourth, just three points away from a medal. The same roster of classes was raced in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
For Paris 2024, the disciplines have been changed dramatically. There will be two mixed classes sailed in 470s and the Nacra 17. There will be four classes for women: iQFoil, Laser Radial, Formula Kiteboard and 49erFX Skiff. The men will race iQFoil, Laser, 49er Skiff and Formula Kiteboard. With two kiteboard classes and two classes of sailboards, the Olympic Games will look different to most sailors. But the good news is that men and women will have equal opportunities to win medals. ■