Susan is an awesome sailor. There are lots of great women sailors. My sister has been beating men all her sailing life, too.

But this thread was about the Olympics and why there are usually no women at all racing in the Open classes. I just theorized that those particular classes are, in general, too demanding for women to be competitive with men at the Olympic level.

And I suggested the reason for that is the difference in testosterone levels. My sister agrees with me, and my daughter agrees with me. So I have at least two women on my side.

If the Hobie 16 were an Open Olympic class, we would probably start seeing more women, both as skipper and as crew.

I think the designation of "Open" is silly for the Laser, 49er and Tornado (especially since the Tornado added the spinnaker), but it has been suggested to me that ISAF has to designate some classes as open, whether women are really ABLE to compete in them or not. It has something to do with an IOC rule -- maybe X number of classes have to be available to women.

Does anybody know about this? Does it have something to do with Title 9? I thought that was just for high school and college sports.

But if they do have to designate some "Open" classes, why don't they make at least one of them a true and realistic open class?