No wind no Olympics

Ian Walker examines the desperate situation at Qingdao, the sailing venue for the 2008 Olympics

At the ISAF November conference the 11 Olympic Classes for 2008 were finalised. This means that Olympic campaigns can begin in earnest. The days when good dinghy or small keelboat sailors could turn their attention to Olympic Class sailing 18 months before the Olympics are long gone. 75% of country qualification will be at the ISAF Worlds in 2007 and many countries’ representative selection could start before then. In reality most of the 2008 medal winners will have already been campaigning for at least one Olympiad and are likely to have been racing in Athens. But don’t let that put you off - you have to start sometime!

Of course before embarking upon an Olympic campaign you have to make 'the decision' first. 'The decision' is one of total dedication to achieving your Olympic dream. Without that you will not succeed and it would be foolhardy to even start. I have been fortunate to have never regretted making 'the decision' myself. I enjoyed the Savannah (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) Olympics as both Olympic Sailor and Coach. All of these provided a very difficult but ultimately fair test of skill for the competitors. My concern is that from the little evidence we have so far, Qingdao the Beijing 2008 sailing venue, may not be able to provide the same test.

Several top Olympians have voiced their personal concerns about Qingdao and how it might affect their decision to campaign in the first place. Don’t get me wrong - I am not talking about the city, the country or the people - in fact I am intrigued and motivated by each of these. I am talking about the prospect of there being little or no wind. Who would want to commit three and a half years of their life to Olympic sailing only to go to a venue with little or no prospect of wind (ask the Tornado sailors who competed in Athens about that!).

This might seem sensationalist but ask any of the Optimist sailors or parents who spent three weeks in Qingdao for their World Championship in July 2001. They had no wind suitable for racing. They completed seven races of the World Championship series and did that by racing in atrocious conditions close to the shore which left many competitors being unable to finish in the time limit.

Feelings were running so high about the inadequacies of the venue that parents had to be talked out of staging a 'walk out' at the prizegiving. Of course every place can have periods of no wind but there is increasing evidence that this is the norm in Qingdao in July and August. I am reliably informed by those that have been there that Qingdao is very humid, rarely has a gradient wind, offers little sea breeze activity and suffers from the odd typhoon or two! ISAF were consulted by the IOC on the ‘technical suitability’ of the venue prior to Beijing’s Olympic nomination but they were presented with what appears to have been very tenuous wind data (24 hour average wind speeds that look OK when you add in the odd 60 knot typhoon or two).

Bear in mind that ISAF’s approval was sought long ago when other Olympic host cities were also in the frame for nomination. Knowing so little about Chinese sailing venues and having no independent good quality data it would be hard for ISAF to do anything but listen to what the locals had to say. If the Chinese say it is the best venue who are they to argue? Ultimately ISAF have to pander to the IOC as if there are no suitable venues then presumably there could end up being no sailing regatta.

The problem now is that having an Olympic regatta with little or no wind could be disastrous for both ISAF and the sport’s reputation. Sailing needs the Olympic regatta to be a success as it is the primary international showcase for our sport. Even if they do get enough wind to sail some races, do we really want people to believe that seeing people sat motionless in the bottom of their boats in little or no wind is what our sport is all about? Watching Ynglings in any wind is bad enough but having to watch any of the classes in no wind is dreadfully dull.

The British Olympic Team have already carried out detailed weather studies of Qingdao and while guarded about the details the conclusion of team manager Stephen Park is that "8 knots could be a big day in Qingdao" - this says it all. Not only is there little chance of wind but Qingdao is fairly tidal and getting races in in any light winds could prove to be problematic. Maybe we will have to wait for the first pre-Olympic regatta in 2006 before the extent of the problem is unearthed. By then of course the marina will be built and the politics of changing venues insurmountable (I suspect they already are). It may become even more useful than we thought having an IOC President who understands the importance of wind!

In 1980 British sailors who had trained long and hard for the Moscow Olympics were banned from competing as part of the boycott over the invasion of Afghanistan. Only they know how hard that was to deal with. Imagine now how you would feel, if, after training for at least three years, there was no wind at the Olympic Regatta, just as the Optimist sailors experienced in 2001. The pressures of the Olympics are hard enough to deal with without having to worry about ‘Mickey Mouse’ races in strong tide and no wind or even worse still no racing at all.

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