The first event of the Olympic classes Sailing Grand Slam 2025 will kick-off in less than a month with the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca.
Since entries opened in January, 700 crews from 53 countries have already confirmed they will race in the first event of the season featuring all ten Olympic disciplines of the Los Angeles 2028 cycle.
Expect a big turnout of British competitors – 47 crews to date – as the British Sailing Team looks to regroup after their worst Olympic result since Atlanta 1996.
The Paris medals came in the two newest ‘sailing’ events – the Formula Kite (gold) and the iQFoil (bronze) – both foiling board events, not involving any of the traditional in-water dinghy designs.
A possible sign that the British training regime was blindsided by the dramatic changes in the Olympic sailing disciplines, driven by the IOC efforts to attract a wider, younger audience . . . while World Sailing wasted much time and effort defending the status quo, before scrambling together a pick and mix collection.
To date the high profile British Team retirees are: James Peters and Fynn Sterritt in the 49er, and Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube in the 470.
Not only in those two classes but across the entire Olympic field the door will be open for fresh faces this cycle!
It took the introduction of Lottery funding* in 1997 to produce the record breaking team at Sydney 2000 – 3 gold, 2 silver – and start a record medal run at the Games . . . Until 2024.
For the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle British Olympic class sailing will benefit from new record funding of £23,950,000.
Something they will have to justify with a much better performance at Los Angeles, as their results do not justify such largesse compared with some other Team GB sports, who would like a fairer slice of the UKsport funding.
Los Angeles is the host for the 2028 Games.
The last two USA hosted Games were dire times for British Sailing, we surely do not want a repeat of Los Angeles ’84 . . . Jonathan Richards and Peter Allam in the Flying Dutchman class were the only sailing medal winners with a bronze medal back then.
Although the Los Angeles Games seem a long way off, the road to recovery starts with the 54th edition of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca taking place from 28 March to 5 April on the Bay of Palma.
*UK Sport funding received by sports In addition to funding made directly to athletes in the form of Athlete Performance Awards (APAs).
