Sailing at the 1972 Summer Olympics

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 the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1972 consisted of a total of six sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 29 August 1972 to 8 September 1972 of the coast of Kiel-Schilksee in the Bay of Kiel. Kiel hosted the Olympic sailing competitions for the second time, having previously done so during the 1936 Summer Olympics. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.[1]

Sailing
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Special stamp Germany, Olympic sailing 1972
VenuesOlympiazentrum Schilksee
DatesFirst race: 29 August 1972 (1972-08-29)
Last race: 8 September 1972 (1972-09-08)
Competitors323 from 42 nations
Boats152

Venue

Olympic Center Schilksee
Olympiazentrum Schilksee
Burgee of the Kieler Yacht Club
General information
StatusComplete
TypeOlympic harbor
Country Germany
Coordinates54°25′48″N 10°10′15″E
ElevationSealevel
Construction started13 October 1969
Cost€ 30,000,000
Design and construction
ArchitectHeinrich Storch
Walter Ehlers

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. Among others, an exception is made for the Olympic yachting events, which customarily must be staged on the open sea. On account of this principle, immediately after it became known that the city of Munich had the intention of hosting the Games of the XXth Olympiad, the cities of Kiel and Lübeck competed for the honor to carry out the Olympic yachting regattas.

Kiel-Schilksee (Olympiazentrum)

When Kiel (and the Kieler Yacht-Club) won the competition the following was decided:

  • a yachting center would be built in Kiel/Schilksee that, as was the case with the sport facilities in Munich, must be usable after the period of the Olympic Games as a future sports center;
  • the city of Kiel will conduct a building competition for the Olympic Center in Kiel-Schilksee as soon as possible;
  • the OC will form a committee for the Olympic yachting events to coordinate all contingencies arising in Kiel, and will in addition create a corresponding full-time organization of the OC in Kiel in order to handle the necessary work and activities in Kiel on schedule.

During the Games the number of spectators and visitors at the Olympic events in Kiel and at the Olympic Center in Kiel-Schilksee exceeded the expectations by a large margin. Conservative estimates put the total number at about a million spectators and visitors in Kiel.

Course areas

A total of three race areas were set in the Firth of Kiel of the coast of Kiel/Schilksee. The location points to the center of the 2 nm radius circle for course area A & B and to a 1.5 nm radius circle for course area C.

Olympic Course Areas 1972.
A: 54°29'50'’N, 10°22'00'’E (Soling & Dragon)
B: 54°30'30'’N, 10°13'45'’E(Flying Dutchman, Tempest & Star)
C: 54°30'30'’N, 10°13'00'’E (Finn)

Competition

Overview

Continents Countries Classes Boats Male Female
44261523230

Continents

  • Asia
  • Oceania
  • Europe
  • Americas

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1972 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
 Argentina (ARG) Australia (AUS) Austria (AUT) Bahamas (BAH)
 Belgium (BEL) Bermuda (BER) Brazil (BRA) Canada (CAN)
 Denmark (DEN) Spain (ESP) Finland (FIN) France (FRA)
 West Germany (FRG) Great Britain (GBR) East Germany (GDR) Greece (GRE)
 Hong Kong (HKG) Hungary (HUN) India (IND) Ireland (IRL)
 Israel (ISR) Virgin Islands (ISV) Italy (ITA) Jamaica (JAM)
 Japan (JPN) Mexico (MEX) Netherlands (NED) Norway (NOR)
 New Zealand (NZL) Philippines (PHI) Poland (POL) Portugal (POR)
 Puerto Rico (PUR) Republic of China (ROC) Switzerland (SUI) Sweden (SWE)
 Czechoslovakia (TCH) Thailand (THA) Trinidad and Tobago (TRI) Soviet Union (URS)
 United States (USA) Yugoslavia (YUG)

Classes (equipment)

ClassTypeEventSailorsTrapezeMainsailJib/GenoaSpinnakerFirst OGOlympics so far
FinnDinghy10+19526
Flying DutchmanDinghy21+++19604
TempestKeelboat21+++19721
StarKeelboat20++19329
SolingKeelboat30+++19721
DragonKeelboat30+++19487

Race schedule

  Opening ceremony  Event competitions  Event finals  Closing ceremony
Date August September
26th
Sat
27th
Sun
28th
Mon
29th
Tue
30th
Wed
31st
Thu
1st
Fri
2nd
Sat
3rd
Sun
4th
Mon
5th
Tue
6th
Wed
7th
Thu
8th
Fri
9th
Sat
10th
Sun
11th
Mon
Sailing (planning)



Spare
day
Spare
day



Spare
day
Spare
day
Total gold medals6
Sailing (actual)



Spare
day
Spare
day


Fog
Total gold medals6
Ceremonies

Medal summary

Event Gold Silver Bronze

1972: Finn

 France (FRA)
Serge Maury
 Greece (GRE)
Ilias Hatzipavlis
 Soviet Union (URS)
Viktor Potapov

1972: Flying Dutchman

 Great Britain (GBR)
Rodney Pattisson
Christopher Davies
 France (FRA)
Yves Pajot
Marc Pajot
 West Germany (FRG)
Ulli Libor
Peter Naumann

1972: Tempest

 Soviet Union (URS)
Valentin Mankin
Vitali Dyrdyra
 Great Britain (GBR)
Alan Warren
David Hunt
 United States (USA)
Glen Foster
Peter Dean

1972: Star

 Australia (AUS)
David Forbes
John Anderson
 Sweden (SWE)
Pelle Petterson
Stellan Westerdahl
 West Germany (FRG)
Wilhelm Kuhweide
Karsten Meyer

1972: Soling

 United States (USA)
Harry Melges
William Allen
William Bentsen
 Sweden (SWE)
Stig Wennerström
Bo Knape
Stefan Krook
 Canada (CAN)
David Miller
Paul Côté
John Ekels

1972: Dragon

 Australia (AUS)
John Cuneo
Thomas Anderson
John Shaw
 East Germany (GDR)
Paul Borowski
Karl-Heinz Thun
Konrad Weichert
 United States (USA)
Donald Cohan
Charles Horter
John Marshall

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Australia (AUS)2002
2 France (FRA)1102
 Great Britain (GBR)1102
4 United States (USA)1023
5 Soviet Union (URS)1012
6 Sweden (SWE)0202
7 East Germany (GDR)0101
 Greece (GRE)0101
9 West Germany (FRG)0022
10 Canada (CAN)0011
Totals (10 nations)66618

Notes

Munich

Because of the distance to Munich and the fact that no sailing was scheduled for 6 and 7 September, the killings of 11 Israeli athletes had less impact on sailing than it had on the other events in Munich. Only a few of the sailing teams did not start at the last day of the races, among them the Israelian Flying Dutchman team of Yair Michaeli and Izchak Nir.

Other information

Sailing

  • This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men-only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988.
  • Some sources state the Finn event as a designated men-only event. The Official report of the games does not mention this gender specific discriminator,
  • It was the first Olympic sailing contest where only "One Design" classes were used. Also none of the classes was "owned by one builder". In general more than one builder was allowed. (The boats had to apply to what we now call open standards).
  • Paul Elvstrøm was trying to win his fifth Gold medal. However, he left the games prematurely. Assumed is that the media pressure became too high at that moment. Paul took revenge by sailing two times more at the Olympics (1984 and 1988) in the Tornado. One of Paul's crewmembers from the Soling took the gold later. Valdemar Bandolowski together with 1972 Dragon helmsman Poul Richard Høj Jensen won the Gold in the Soling class in 1976 and 1980.
  • Although favourable wind conditions in September were predicted. Some of the races suffered from lack of wind. In the Soling and Dragon only 6 races could be completed and the 6th race in the Finn only three contenders were able to finish in time.

Sailors

During the sailing regattas at the 1972 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

Further reading

  • "Digital Library Collection (Official Olympic Reports 1896 - 2008)". Digital Library Collection at la84.org. la84foundation. Retrieved 3 March 2014.

References

  1. "Sailing at the 1972 Summer Olympics". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 June 2020.

Sources

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