Women’s Kiteboarding
Great Britain’s Eleanor Aldridge won Olympic kiteboarding’s first ever gold on Thursday, with France’s Lauriane Nolot securing silver and Annelous Lammerts of the Netherlands taking bronze in the women’s event.
American Daniela Moroz finished fourth in the first-to-three final, as the medal favorite was surprisingly kept off the podium.
Due to persistent wind issues, the kiteboarding competition was dramatically shortened during the opening series. The normal thermal sea breeze just didn’t materialize for four days off the coast of Marseille. With the kiteboards making their Olympic debut this year, it was expected that this new sport — which features kites that can easily sail at least three times the speed of the wind — would be exciting for racers and spectators alike.
And with winds holding up for the race on Thursday, kiteboarders hit speeds of more than 30 knots — making for an impressive sight.
America’s best hope for a medal rested on the shoulders of 23-year-old Moroz from Lafayette, California. She is a six-time world champion and the top ranked kiteboarder in the world.
She got off to an uncharacteristic slow start with a seventh out of 20 boats in the first race of the opening series, but was able to come back with a 3-4-1-2-7 to earn a top seed in the semifinal round.
Her first task on Thursday was to make it through the semifinal. She won the heat against riders from Switzerland, Israel and Australia and advanced to the final, where she would face Nolot, the top seed on home water, along with Aldridge and Lammerts.
The final format awards the gold medal to the first rider to win three races. The top seed from entered the final credited two wins and the second seed is spotted one win. If Nolot won the first race, the race the regatta would be over.
With the wind blowing 11mph from the west, Moroz finished Race 1 in third place, 16 seconds behind the leader — Aldridge. The win for the British rider extended the final to a second race and brought her to within one win of the gold. It also meant another chance for Moroz.
Moroz needed a win to stay alive in the regatta. It was a tough challenge for her against three sailors who were noticeably taller and larger, which is advantageous on kiteboards.
The four riders looked frantic and determined as they came off the line in the second final. Aldridge took an early lead and slowly stretched out to a seal a nine second victory over Lammerts for the gold medal. Moroz was within one second of Lammerts approaching the third turning mark and was penalized by the on-the-water umpires for a rule’s infraction of impeding the Dutch sailor during a maneuver.
As a result of the penalty, Moroz would have extra points added to her score and ended up fourth — no medal. At the age of 23, Moroz can certainly return for another try in Los Angeles in 2028.
Men’s Kiteboarding
Toni Vodisek (Slovenia) was riding two wins after winning the opening series. Max Maeder (Singapore) carried one win from his second-place finish in the opening series. Vodisek finished fourth and Maeder finished second as Valentin Bontus (Austria) won the first race of the final and scored a win.
The door seemed open for anyone to claim the gold, but just before the start signal for then next race sounded, two kites were in the water and after nearly 30 minutes of wrangling them, the AP over A code flags were hoisted and the race was postponed to Friday.
Mixed Dinghy
Austria’s Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr did enough in their medal race to clinch gold in the mixed dinghy after fighting their way up from the back of the fleet.
After a brief pause while they waited for confirmation of the points tally, the Austrians celebrated by capsizing their 470 dinghy and standing on its upturned hull, waving their flag.
Japan’s Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka stayed near the front throughout the double-points finale to secure silver, while Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden picked up bronze.
Wind shifts tested the crews as they had to pick a favored side of the course and there was joy for the Japanese and Swedish crews as they savored their results.
Although France’s Camille Lecointre and Jeremie Mion won the medal race, they ended in sixth place overall on points.
Mixed Multihull
Reigning Olympic champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy won gold in the mixed multihull on Thursday, sailing a composed final medal race to secure another Italian victory.
Argentina’s Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco held off Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson of New Zealand to secure silver, with the Kiwis taking bronze in a tricky, light-wind contest.
“We said to each other before we started this cycle that winning a second one was going to be much harder,” Tita said, adding: “We didn’t win the medal today, or this week, it’s the work that we put together for the whole three years”.
There was heartbreak for British medal hopefuls John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who were disqualified for being over at the start. They appeared not to realise and did not go back to re-cross the line, with officials breaking the news mid-race.
The British pair, who are due to get married next month, had been well placed for silver or bronze going into the last race and were clearly distraught to hear their dream was over.
Gimson and Burnet welcomed their Italian training partners ashore, hugging them as the celebrations began on the beach for Italy, who notched up their second sailing gold of the Games after Marta Maggetti won the women’s windsurfing.
Medal Watch
The Netherlands has won four sailing medals in France for the best performance of these Olympics. A total of 27 medals have been awarded to 17 countries across nine classes.
The men’s kiteboarding class is the last event, which will be decided Friday. Three of four countries will win a medal: Austria, Singapore, Italy or Slovenia. We could potentially see 19 countries win sailing medals in Paris 2024, a mark that showcases strong parity in the sailing world and bodes well for the sport’s future.
It was not a strong regatta for the United States. American sailors will return home from Paris with one bronze medal in the men’s skiff class thanks to Ian Barrows and Hans Henken. The leadership of the United States Sailing Association will take a hard look at what can be done to improve for the next Olympics that will be sailed on home waters off Long Beach, California. The last time the Games were sailed in Long Beach, in 1984, the United States won three gold medals and four silver medals across seven classes.
Reuters contributed to this article
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