Here's the thing, the Olympics is supposed to be a proving ground for the best in each Nation to compete against the best of the "other" Nations, sort of like a World Championship but it only happens every 4 years. So you could say that all the World Championships between Olympic years are just to find out WHO deserves to be IN the Olympics, representing their country.

When I look at all of sailing, from Opti's to The Race, with 120 foot cats, the trend in Sailing World Speed Records is obvioulsy big cats or tri's. So maybe if any class of boat should be "dropped" maybe it should be the 100 yr. old Star, or the 40 yr. old 470's. Why are we still supporting those designs when clearly the future lies in lighter, faster sailboats? Yes the Tornado HULLS might be an older design but the rig has been updated several times and the boat continues to be at the front in all major open regattas.

So maybe the real issue behind US Sailing is not "The chance for medals." but rather, "We are affraid that more people will see multihulls as the future of fast sailing and we don't want to lose any more of our top tallent to them, we need them to stay in the Star and 470." You will remember that two of the top America's Cup skippers just started a "World Sailing League", and what boat did they choose for that?