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 the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1968 consisted of a total of five sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 14 October 1968 to 21 October 1968 off the coast of Acapulco in the Bay of Acapulco. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.
Venue
Acapulco Bay is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Guerrero, 250 miles from Mexico City. The facilities at Club de Yates were improved and modified. 20,000 square metres of new docks provided with potable water, electricity and telephones were created. The buoys bearing colored flags delineated the three course areas.
Technical control was assured by a staff of measurers for gauging all yachts before racing.
The Olympic Village, located in the Caleta Hotel, provided accommodation for 503 competitors, trainers, team managers from 40 countries.
Competition
Overview ContinentsCountriesClassesBoatsMaleFemale 5 41 5 123 251 0
Continents Asia Oceania Europe Americas
Countries
Classes (equipment) Class Type Event Sailors Trapeze Mainsail Jib/Genoa Spinnaker First OG Olympics so far Finn Dinghy 1 0 + – – 1952 5 Flying Dutchman Dinghy 2 1 + + + 1960 3 Star Keelboat 2 0 + + – 1932 8 Dragon Keelboat 3 0 + + + 1948 6 5.5 Metre Keelboat 3 0 + + + 1952 5 = Male, = Female, = Open
Medal summary
1968: Finn Soviet Union (URS)Valentin Mankin Austria (AUT)Hubert Raudaschl Italy (ITA)Fabio Albarelli
1968: Flying Dutchman Great Britain (GBR)Rodney PattissonIain MacDonald-Smith West Germany (FRG)Ulli LiborPeter Naumann Brazil (BRA)Reinaldo ConradBurkhard Cordes
1968: Star United States (USA)Lowell NorthPeter Barrett Norway (NOR)Peder Lunde Jr.Per Wiken Italy (ITA)Franco CavalloCamillo Gargano
1968: Dragon United States (USA)George FriedrichsBarton JahnckeGerald Schreck Denmark (DEN)Aage BirchPaul Lindemark JørgensenNiels Markussen East Germany (GDR)Paul BorowskiKarl-Heinz ThunKonrad Weichert
1968: 5.5 Metre Sweden (SWE)Ulf SundelinJörgen SundelinPeter Sundelin Switzerland (SUI)Louis NoverrazBernhard DunandMarcel Stern Great Britain (GBR)Robin AisherPaul AndersonAdrian Jardine
Medal table
Remarks
Sailing This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men-only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988. was trying to win his fifth gold medal. This time in the Star. He came close. 4th. won his first Olympic medal (Gold) in his boat Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It is difficult to appoint Olympic records to sailing, but the score of this Flying Dutchman team would hold probably the record of best Olympic score: DSQ, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2! In each of the five classes there was a major difference in points between the gold and the silver medalists.
Sailors During the Sailing regattas at the 1968 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes: Royalties , King of Norway, HRH Crown Prince Harald in the 5.5 Metre Sport managers , Future president International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge in the Finn , Future president International Sailing Federation, Peter Tallberg in the Star , Future president International Sailing Federation, Paul Henderson in the Finn . Future holder of the Silver Olympic Order, George Andreadis in the Flying Dutchman
Notes
References