...I would be interested to hear what kind of exposure Olympic Sailing received there...
...Very little. Maybe a minute or so every 6 hrs as part of the (almost) 24x7 coverage; perhaps totallying 5 minutes per day at max. Medal's might just make the late news. No "sailing gold frenzy for the GB team in Athens etc TV special".
Still, direct coverage is not everything.
In GB, for instance, Olympics revive the feeling that the country "rules the seas". This has political implications beyond our sport and the olympics - especially when GB rules Olympic sailing only...
In Brazil sailing brings home more medals than any other sport. Sport sailing activities could even be restrained by the socialist government. Instead, due to the limited but positive visibility during the Olympic games, being "number two ruling the seas" sounded good enough for the government to suport ($$$) a Volvo Ocean Race entry lead by olympic gold medalist Torben Grael.
I guess the situation is about the same in SA, NZ and Australia: sailing in the olympics has more "outside" impact and means more than what can be perceived merely counting TV minutes and newspaper space.
On the other hand, the selection of equipment, format and rules for the olympics certainly need development. I expect to see faster, more exciting (and colorful) boats, more onboard and blimp-attached cameras and a constant search for the ideal spectator oriented format. But not as fast as we would like.
Luiz
