On August 8^th, 2008, the XXIX Olympic Summer Games will open in the Chinese capital Beijing. 302 contests will be carried out in a total of 28 different sports, among which windsurfing will be present, too, as part of the Olympic sailing competitions. Those will take place in Qingdao, southeast of Beijing.   

Olympic Tradition

Windsurfing has been an Olympic discipline since 1984 (Los Angeles) for the men, and since 1992 (Barcelona) for the women, while Olympic windsurfing takes a special position among the disciplines of this sport. Whereas the choice of material is hardly regularized for example at the World Cups of the Professional Windsurfers Association PWA, at the Olympic Games all surfers start with exactly the same equipment.  

Disciplines in Windsurfing

Various styles have emerged early within windsurfing, which sometimes show great differences with regard to the course of movements and the surfing material needed. Out of these variants, own disciplines have developed quickly, which today at the level of competition are performed within separate valuations or contests.

Among the most important disciplines are wavesailing, when surfers ride gigantic waves on small and especially mobile boards, freestyle, where the aim is to conjure the latest tricks and maneuvers on the water on likewise mobile but slightly more expanded boards, and racing, which in turn is carried out in various formats, for example slalom or the formula windsurfing.  

At the racing formats, as it is typical for other sports, too, the aim is to complete various prearranged courses as fast as possible. Speedsurfing constitutes an exception insofar as it is mainly about reaching average speed levels as high as possible within various distances.

However, as windsurfing is categorized within the system of “rating”, with medals for women and men respectively, one discipline had to be agreed upon.        

Olympic Demands

Traditionally, the discipline being performed at the Olympic Games is racing. This is, among other reasons, due to the fact that Olympic venues of sailing competitions, with regard to the operability of the contests in all ratings, normally do not provide ideal conditions for high waves and strong wind. Olympic races have to take place within the official days of competition, forced breaks because of insufficient swell or a low breeze would quite unsettle the Olympic competition schedule. Therefore, racing as a discipline first of all embodies a workable variant of windsurfing.    

In addition to that, Olympic sports have to fulfil other demands as well. Along with operability, this primarily includes equality of opportunity. According to the motto “it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part”, it should be guaranteed that poorer nations will not be excluded from the competition because of high costs for material.