Sailing at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Mistral	men	women
Europe		women
Laser	open
Finn	men
470	men	women
Tornado	open
Star	open
Soling	open

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possibly the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1996 consisted of a total of ten sailing classes (disciplines). For each class, with the exception of the Soling, eleven races were scheduled from 22 July to 2 August 1996 off the coast of Savannah at the Wassaw Sound (an area of the Atlantic Ocean). For the Soling ten fleetraces were scheduled followed by a series of matchraces for the top 6 boats of the fleetrace result.^[1]

Venue

Day Marina
Coordinates: 31°56′01″N 80°56′59″W / 31.93361°N 80.94972°W / 31.93361; -80.94972

According to the IOC statutes the contests in all sport disciplines must be held either in, or as close as possible to the city which the IOC has chosen. An exception was made for the Olympic yachting events, which customarily must be staged on the open sea. On account of this principle, the city of Savannah was chosen for the organization of the sailing events. Spectators were given the opportunity to board boats that will sail out to the courses to provide a close look at the competition. About 1000 spectators per day made use of the opportunity.

The sailing events were held off the coast of Savannah at the Wassaw Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The venue used three locations:

• Satellite Olympic Village in Savannah
• Olympic marina on Wilmington Island. The Stars and Solings, were towed between the Olympic marina and their race areas.
• Day marina, a temporary barge system (14,000 m²) near the north side of Wassaw Sound at the mouth of the Wilmington River. The day marina was used as a forward launch area for the dinghies and windsurf boards.

Black = Marina's
Blue = Alpha course
Green = Bravo course
Yellow = Charly course
Red = Delta course

Separate course areas were used for the following pairs of classes:

• Mistral one-design (men and women)
• Europe and Laser
• Finn and Star
• 470 (men and women)
• Tornado and Soling (fleetracing)
• Soling (matchracing)

Competition

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1996 Olympic Games. Blue: Water Gray: Never participated in OG Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG Green: Country participated for the first time Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Netherlands Antilles (AHO)  Andorra (AND)  Antigua and Barbuda (ANT)  Argentina (ARG)  American Samoa (ASA)  Australia (AUS)  Austria (AUT)  Bahamas (BAH)  Barbados (BAR)  Belgium (BEL)  Bermuda (BER)  Belarus (BLR)  Brazil (BRA)  Bahrain (BRN)  Canada (CAN)  Cayman Islands (CAY)  Chile (CHI)  China (CHN)  Cook Islands (COK)  Croatia (CRO)  Cuba (CUB)  Cyprus (CYP)  Czech Republic (CZE)  Denmark (DEN)  Djibouti (DJI)  Ecuador (ECU)  Spain (ESP)  Estonia (EST)  Fiji (FIJ)  Finland (FIN)  France (FRA)  Great Britain (GBR)  Georgia (GEO)  Germany (GER)  Greece (GRE)  Guatemala (GUA)  Guam (GUM)  Hong Kong (HKG)  Hungary (HUN)  Indonesia (INA)  Ireland (IRL)  Israel (ISR)  Virgin Islands (ISV)  Italy (ITA)  British Virgin Islands (IVB)  Jamaica (JAM)  Japan (JPN)  South Korea (KOR)  Latvia (LAT)  Saint Lucia (LCA)  Malaysia (MAS)  Mexico (MEX)  Malta (MLT)  Netherlands (NED)  Norway (NOR)  New Zealand (NZL)  Paraguay (PAR)  Poland (POL)  Portugal (POR)  Puerto Rico (PUR)  Qatar (QAT)  Romania (ROM)  South Africa (RSA)  Russia (RUS)  Seychelles (SEY)  Singapore (SIN)  Slovenia (SLO)  San Marino (SMR)  Switzerland (SUI)  Slovakia (SVK)  Sweden (SWE)  Thailand (THA)  Chinese Taipei (TPE)  Turkey (TUR)  Ukraine (UKR)  Uruguay (URU)  United States (USA)  Venezuela (VEN)

Classes (equipment)

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jibb/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
Mistral One Design Class	Surfboard		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Mistral One Design Class	Surfboard		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Europe	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1992	2
Laser	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1996	1
Finn	Dinghy		1	0	+	–	–	1952	12
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1988	3
470	Dinghy		2	1	+	+	+	1976	6
Tornado	Multihull		2	1	+	+	–	1976	6
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	14
Soling	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	1972	7

1996 Olympic Classes designs

• 

Medal summary

Women's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Women's Mistral One Design	Hong Kong (HKG) Lee Lai-shan	New Zealand (NZL) Barbara Kendall	Italy (ITA) Alessandra Sensini
1996: Europe	Denmark (DEN) Kristine Roug	Netherlands (NED) Margriet Matthijsse	United States (USA) Courtenay Becker-Dey
1996: Women's 470	Spain (ESP) Theresa Zabell Begoña Vía Dufresne	Japan (JPN) Yumiko Shige Alicia Kinoshita	Ukraine (UKR) Ruslana Taran Olena Pakholchik

Men's events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Men's Mistral One Design	Greece (GRE) Nikolaos Kaklamanakis	Argentina (ARG) Carlos Espinola	Israel (ISR) Gal Fridman
1996: Finn	Poland (POL) Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Belgium (BEL) Sébastien Godefroid	Netherlands (NED) Roy Heiner
1996: Men's 470	Ukraine (UKR) Yevhen Braslavets Ihor Matviyenko	Great Britain (GBR) John Merricks Ian Walker	Portugal (POR) Victor Rocha Nuno Barreto

Open events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1996: Laser	Brazil (BRA) Robert Scheidt	Great Britain (GBR) Ben Ainslie	Norway (NOR) Peer Moberg
1996: Tornado	Spain (ESP) Fernando León José Luis Ballester	Australia (AUS) Mitch Booth Andrew Landenberger	Brazil (BRA) Lars Grael Henrique Pellicano
1996: Star	Brazil (BRA) Torben Grael Marcelo Ferreira	Sweden (SWE) Hans Wallén Bobby Lohse	Australia (AUS) Colin Beashel David Giles
1996: Soling	Germany (GER) Jochen Schümann Thomas Flach Bernd Jäkel	Russia (RUS) Georgy Shayduko Dmitri Shabanov Igor Skalin	United States (USA) Jeff Madrigali Jim Barton Kent Massey

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil (BRA)	2	0	1	3
2	Spain (ESP)	2	0	0	2
3	Ukraine (UKR)	1	0	1	2
4	Denmark (DEN)	1	0	0	1
	Germany (GER)	1	0	0	1
	Greece (GRE)	1	0	0	1
	Hong Kong (HKG)	1	0	0	1
	Poland (POL)	1	0	0	1
9	Great Britain (GBR)	0	2	0	2
10	Australia (AUS)	0	1	1	2
	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	1	2
12	Argentina (ARG)	0	1	0	1
	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	0	1
	Japan (JPN)	0	1	0	1
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	1	0	1
	Russia (RUS)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
18	United States (USA)	0	0	2	2
19	Israel (ISR)	0	0	1	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 entries)		10	10	10	30

Remarks

Incidents

Hurricane Bertha

• The Olympic sailing facility at Savannah was before the opening of the Olympic Games (10 July) within the Hurricane Bertha warning area. Tornados, Stars and Solings were moved to the Sheraton facility. The Day Marina and the Sheraton were evacuated; the evacuation was complete by 6 PM.

Notes

References

• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume I Planning and Organization (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume II The Centennial Olympic Games (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (1997). The Official Report of the Centennial Olympic Games, Volume III The Competition Results (PDF). Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
• Hugh Drake & Paul Henderson (2009). Canada's Olympic Sailing Legacy, Paris 1924 - Beijing 2008. Toronto: CYA.
• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sailing at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
• "IYRU Olympic Update". ISAF. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2011.