Paris2024: 32 countries qualify for Marseille off the 2023 Worlds
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 21 Aug 2023 17:59 NZST
Start of Womens 49erFX race - Tokyo2020 - Day 7- July, 31, - Enoshima, Japan © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
After the conclusion of the first qualifying Event, 32 countries have earned places for the 2024 Olympic Regatta to be staged in Marseille in July-August 2024.
As Host country France is entitled to enter all 10 Olympic events, and by passes the formal qualification process.
No country has qualified in all 10 Events, unlike previous Olympiads - which is a reflection of the drop in overall entry numbers from 350 at Tokyo2020 to 330 at Paris2024.
Top qualifiers are Great Britain with eight events. The Netherlands host of the just concluded Allianz Sailing World Championships - the first qualification event, has also won entry into eight events in the first qualification round.
World Sailing has yet to announce the allocations officially and the numbers quoted below are unconfirmed, but can be deduced from the results of the ASWC against the pre-announced quotas for each of the ten Olympic Sailing events.
Spain and Italy are next on seven Paris2024 places, followed by New Zealand and Germany on six places. Australia has qualified in five events, with Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and USA qualifying in four events each.
There are several more rounds of Qualification to take place with the process set out on the International Olympic Committee website here.
The next steps are for World Sailing to offer the Member National Authorities (MNAs) their Qualification places.
All places must be confirmed one month before the start of the Last Chance Regatta (LCR) - the date of which is yet to be announced, but it is expected to be three months before the start of the Olympic Regatta.
The new system is intended to improve diversity across the Olympic Regatta, and eliminate the unedifying spectacle of World Sailing trying to reallocate declined Olympic Qualification places due to varying domestic Olympic selection policies within the various MNAs and their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs).