Sounds like things got a bit ugly at the Tornado World Championship prizegiving, after Darren Bundock’s old crew John Forbes took the opportunity to have a go at Yachting New Zealand President Jan Dawson over the Tornado’s ejection from the Olympic slate. Sail World’s Richard Gladwell gave his verdict on the affair. Here’s a snippet:
The class did itself no favours at the Worlds prizegiving with an attack on Yachting New Zealand by past ITA President John Forbes, seemingly endorsed by the new ITA President and echoed with the booing from the competitors tables as Yachting New Zealand President Jan Dawson made her way forward to make a closing address to what had otherwise been a brilliant regatta for the class.
Forbes probed, parried and quoted from a leaked email from the Yachting NZ Olympic Committee, which got onto the internet some months ago and was seized upon by the international multihull community.
The fact that the recommendation was not accepted by the YNZ Board seemed to be lost on Forbes. As too was the fact that Yachting New Zealand is one of the few organisations with the guts to have said they intend to make a submission to ISAF requesting a review of the event selection for the 2012 Olympics.
For the Multihull to make it back into the 2012 Olympics, there has to be quite a few more Yachting New Zealand’s prepared to make such a stand.
Richard’s comment provoked an equally eloquent rebuttal from Darren Bundock, who has this to say:
There is no doubt that John’s speech was a great surprise and I think totally unexpected by everyone in the room at the presentation and when he read the first line of the submission I instantly knew which MNA had made this submission and I cringed on where he was going with it. However, after reflecting on his speech over night there is no doubt that he was completely honest and right on the money.
There is no doubt that the Tornado sailors appreciate the recent turn around from Yachting New Zealand but Yachting New Zealand’s submissions and their council member help contribute to the disastrous position that Olympic sailing is in right now. No question.
It needs to be made perfectly clear to all these National Member Associations worldwide what their actions are doing to the future of the sport and the lives of the Athletes with very little consequence on the MNA’s, Yachting Association boards and council members.
The recently appointed ISAF Athletes Commission (the athletes’ voice) has come out with 10 of the 11 Olympic classes represented stating that the decision taken in Estoril was a bad decision and needs to be overturned. This is what the athletes want. Remember us? The sailors.
A very interesting debate, which you can read in full on Sail-World. If you’re a regular SailJuice reader you’ll know that my sympathies lie in good part with the multihull sailors. But as Richard Gladwell points out, when an organisation such as YNZ has shown the balls to change its mind and throw its support behind the beleaguered Tornado class, it’s time to say thank you, to forget the past, and to welcome any help you can get with open arms.
The lid on the Tornado’s Olympic coffin hasn’t creaked shut quite yet, but I’m not sure that John Forbes’s speech has done much to secure the Tornado’s safe return from its undeserved grave.
Photo courtesy of Will Calver
Where do people turn to when a democratic process breaks down? THe answer is to attack the threat – the ISAF exec. Now it is all very well saying that this is not the way to do it, but how should it be done? The fact is that a behind closed doors decision was implemented in the face of events ctee recommendations with absolutely no justification or explanation based on a very suspect change of voting proposed (or should that be “orchestrated”) by a floor amendment by an apparently very self interested party. The alledged corruption of democracy appears to warrant extreme reaction, or the authoritarianattitude displayed by ISAF will steamroller our sport into oblivion.
By: Pete Conway on 9 March 2008
at 12:34 pm
I’m not sure this is the right place for this comment as it is about olympic sailing generally but here goes.
I think it is time we took a back step as a sporting community to consider the place of sailing in the olympics. It seems to me that most of the recent debate has been so introspective that the overall picture has been lost sight of – we have lost sight of the wood for the trees. These thoughts don’t represent what I thought 6 months ago but they aren’t far away. The debate has brought things into some better focus for me.
So – back at the begining – what are the Olympics about? The starting point in ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’. It is about athleticicsm. It is about the WoW factor. What it most definitely is not about is showcasing all that a chosen sport can offer. There is no cross country in the athletics for instance. From the sailing perspective it couldn’t possibly include more than a handful of classes and we all accept that.
So which classes and from what breadth/ sector of the sport should they come from? This is where to my mind we should go back to the beginning – Faster, Higher, Stronger with Wow facor and athleticism. Given the developmental nature of our sport then then is no event that should be sacrosanct. Neither should there be any duplicatio. There should also be no place discrimination – only faster, higher and stronger in all cases.
I therefore see no place for 2 single handers, nor do I see any place for racing whose principle skill is tactics only so for me the keel boats aren’t modern olympic classes – above all else with these is the missing w0w factor.
You can see where this is going now but the results are based on the olympic logic – not an overall sailing logic. Non -olympic classes can thrive if they are good enough for the active participant. The rest of us non-olympic mortals can have our fun outside of the rarified olympic stratosphere. The rest of us don’t need the olympics to have our enjoyment for life. Let the olympic classes be the ultimate in faster, higher, stronger.
ISAF really do need to think again for they are doing a diservice to our entire sport, not just the olympians. We are her to participate in all its wonderful vagaries. We aren’t here to glorify ourselves.
By: Bill Tucker on 9 March 2008
at 12:59 pm
But when we look at the other Olympic sports, we see that they judge faster/higher/stronger in the context of the event – not for the whole discipline.
Look at swimming – most events are in slower strokes, not freestyle.
Look at mens athletics – there are eight running events, but FOUR walking events. Of course, of these 12 events only one (the shortest run) is the fastest yet no one is dumping the slower events. They see “citius altius fortest” in context.
Throwing events include javelin (which has been redesigned to reduce its distance, showing that other events have restrictive equipment rules) and the shot put, discus and hammer throw. The last three can’t be thrown as far as a javelin, but they make up 75% of the medals. Once again, the sport hasn’t just said that the “less efficient” disciplines must go. They know that the person who can best throw a discus is just as important as the person who can thrown a javelin even further.
Shooting has events for air pistols (held only with one hand) and from various positions including less efficient ones. Again, the medals go to less “efficient” equipment used under restrictive rules. They don’t allow tripod-mounted heavy machine guns just because they are “more efficient”.
There is no cross-country running, but there are 12 events for cross-country skiiing – 2 more than for Alpine/downhill. Speed skiing was only ever a demonstration event. So the skiers see the much slower XC event as just as fast, high and strong as the super G.
So the Olympic spirit, as expressed in other sports, is for “faster higher stronger” to be seen in the context of the discipline, and that almost always means restrictive rules. Why should sailing – a sport which does allow development but in which the most restricted gear is often the most popular – be any different to athletics, swimming, skiing and the rest?
By: Chris 249 on 9 March 2008
at 11:08 pm