Here ya go. This is a release from Jim Capron, president of US Sailing, about this issue. He wants to make sure we all have the facts right.

United States Sailing Association NATIONAL GOVERNING BODY FOR THE SPORT OF SAILING
To the members of the windsurfing and multihull communities:
Many of you have been writing to me, members of our staff, the Board of Directors, and other volunteers within US SAILING, expressing displeasure and disagreement with US
SAILING’s submission to ISAF on the events for the 2012 Olympic Games.
I appreciate these opinions, but I would like to take a moment to explain our decision and the reasoning behind it. I would also like to answer some of the questions being posed to me.

US SAILING submitted to ISAF a list of eight events that we would like to see in the 2012 Olympic Games. Those included men’s and women’s events in single-handed dinghy,
double-handed dinghy, skiff and keelboat. Our submission was silent on what we would like the other two events to be. Furthermore, our submission did not call for the elimination of any current Olympic event.

The submission that US SAILING sent to ISAF has two goals:
(a) To promote gender equity in Olympic sailing and
(b) To submit eight events in which we believe U.S. sailors will have the best chance to
excel in 2012.

That's it. The submission makes no statement for or against any other event or discipline, nor does it reflect US SAILING’s overall priorities. The submission simply nominates events that give us the best chance to be strong in 2012.

Why does US SAILING want to address gender equity in the Olympics?
Coming from such a rich history of sailing with mixed gender crews, multihull sailors might wonder why we are driving separate men’s and women’s events. We know that the IOC wants gender equity in all its sports, and ISAF has lagged in getting there. US SAILING would support “mixed” events, with teams of men and women sailing together, but there is virtually no support for mixed events anywhere else in the world. Instead, since 1932, many countries have argued for “open” events, like the Open Laser, Open Soling, Open Star, or Open Tornado to promote gender equity. We know that does not work. US SAILING needs to lead the debate on gender equity because few other voices are being heard.

Why did US SAILING’s submission only list eight events?
Quite simply, we made a determination, based on what we know today and the athletes that are currently committed to Olympic class competition, that those are the events where we have a better chance of winning an Olympic medal. We are not saying that we like those events any more than any others, and we are not saying we don’t support any other
discipline.

You should notice, for example, that disciplines such as team racing are not listed in our submission. We love team racing in the United States, and we would have a good chance of winning a medal if team racing was adopted. But team racing is not politically likely to be supported at ISAF, so we left it out of the submission.

This submission lists the eight events we think the United States would be most competitive in for 2012 and that are also likely to have international support at ISAF.

Why is winning medals important?
Aside from the obvious reason, that winning medals is good for the overall sport of sailing in the U.S. and gives us all sailing heroes, we need to win medals to fund future Olympic sailing.

The Olympic side of US SAILING receives no funding from the non-Olympic side of US SAILING. Sailors who join US SAILING to support our Olympic program should know that zero membership revenue (or any other general revenue for that matter) goes to fund the Olympic programs. The US SAILING Olympic program is completely self-funded, primarily through USOC grants and fund-raising. In fact, the Olympic side even pays US SAILING for rent, utilities, postage, etc.
The amount of funding we receive from the USOC to support our Olympic effort is directly tied to our performance on the water at the Games. More medals mean more USOC funding.
It’s that simple.

Is the list of events in the ISAF submission representative of sailing in the United States?

No. It is also not representative of the sailing that the non-Olympic side of the association actively supports and promotes.

Olympic sailing is always in a state of flux. The slate of Olympic events (multihull, keelboat, etc.) is up for debate every four years. Olympic equipment (Tornado, Hobie, etc.) is also up for debate every four years - the year after the events are decided. No class or event is ever guaranteed.

Provided sailing remains in the Olympics, there will always be opportunities for sailors to go to the Olympics, but perhaps not in their first choice of equipment. One of the
hallmarks of great sailors is that they can be successful on different types of equipment.

Charlie Ogletree, who used to sail on my offshore monohull when he lived in Annapolis, was a competitive dinghy sailor before switching to the Tornado.

Has the Tornado been removed from the 2012 Olympics?
Neither the Tornado nor any other class is in the 2012 Olympics at this time. The decisions on events and the equipment used in those events will be made by ISAF, not US SAILING, and this is how it works:

The ISAF member national authorities (MNAs) and classes put forth submissions on events at the 2007 ISAF Mid-year meeting to be held in Paris in May. Some MNAs submit only one event, some a full slate of ten events and others submit a partial slate. Classes also submit events that might use that class’ equipment. At the end of the ISAF Mid-year meeting, a list of possible events is produced. That list gets vetted and debated throughout the year and voted on by the ISAF Council in November to become the final slate of ten events for 2012. Then the whole process begins again the following year to select the equipment that will be used in those events.

Why not recommend a different multihull than the Tornado?
That time may come, but it would be premature to begin discussing equipment now. First we decide on events. If the multihull is eventually selected as one or two of the events, the choice of which multihull class would be important, and US SAILING will be actively engaged in the choice of that equipment.

Does US SAILING support multihull sailing?
US SAILING's role as the national governing body for the sport is to promote sailing. That means all forms of sailing - dinghy sailing, multihull sailing, windsurfing, kite boarding, ocean racing, team racing, match racing, model yacht racing, etc. We do all that. US SAILING's role in fielding a US Olympic Sailing Team is to support competitors and win medals.

I urge windsurfing and multihull sailors to not take the US SAILING submission out of context or read anything in the submission that is not there. The Board decision to submit
eight priority events for the 2012 Olympics is limited to serving our best interests of doing well in the Olympics, and maybe more importantly, helping US SAILING’s ISAF delegation to lead the sport toward gender equity in Olympic sailing.
Jim Capron
President, US SAILING