Quick one as I'm late for the next meeting;
The Commission's first meeting went really well and there were about 25 people in the room. It appears that the Program Commission will meet next month and recommend to the Exec of IOC that the deletions of several medals for the 2012 Games be postponed, which includes sailing.
John, that is very good news!
The Exec meets in February and will consider that recommendation.
I'd bet that the recommendation will be received favorably.
The Multihull Commission is recommending that the 11th medal go to a Multihull Event, and that the equipment be decided upon notification. We heard from Hobie in support of the Tiger, Nacra in support of the Infusion, and from the ITA in support of the new one-design Tornado. The Commission is recommending that if ISAF wants the highest performance, the Tornado be used, and if they are seeking a boat with wider distribution, that the Tiger be used. It was pointed out to us that the Infusion is not an ISAF Recognized Class. While the Nacra F18 was, the Infusion, with a different designer, hasn't completed the process nor affixed plaques and paid per-boat licensing.
Given the growth of the class, the F18 may be a better long-term strategy for MH OLympic development. Using an Alter rotation for the box class, it could be also used to the various Mfr's advantage. The T is certainly th MH thoroughbred, but integrating development of the more popular class by using the Olympics 'as one of our premier MH events' may ultimately garner greater sustainability, and excitement for MH's. (Don't get me wrong, I love the T, but thinking aloud here.) Choosing the growing boat class may work in the opposite direction as well, garnering greater excitement and better regional participation. The idea, overall, being to build a more solid and robust organization based on the growth potential of the competitive fleet.[/quote]
The Commission came out in favor of the various Five Discipline submissions, and is urging the Exec to make a decision sooner than later to allow the evaluation of a Women's platform. There is some indication that those submissions will be pushed off until 2011 since they all deal with the 2016 Games.
I'd rather like to see closure to the 5 event slate. There seems little reason to procrastinate, and the IOC has been clear about their desire on this point. Pushing it off may invite partisan lobbying, and it highly likely that veterans on the IOC many not be very tolerant. Disorganization and lack of efficiency may ultimately be bad for Olympic sailing.
Finally, I'd like to see some more robust methods of coverage. Sailing was better in China, but the internet offers many possibilities that were not explored. The coverage of sailing events could be greatly en as part of the sport which may be greatly enhanced by internet video feeds GPS resources, etc., that are currently available and relatively inexpensive technologies. Is their any forum for this discussion?
More in a bit - wish you guys were here. :-) [/quote]
We admire you, and thank you for your good work and commitment. And Congrats on the recent award!
