History
This sport was known as yachting until 2000, when the name was officially changed. When it became an Olympic sport in 1900, the boats really were yachts, large boats with as many as 10 crew members.
Over the years, though, the big yachts were gradually replaced by smaller, one-design sailboats that put the premium on the skill of the sailors rather than the inherent speed of the vessel.
Results were determined by a series of seven races from 1936 to 1988. In 1992, the Soling class had six round robin races leading up to match races based on the round robin standings, and Sailboarding had a series of 10 races.
All classes except Soling went to an 11-race series in 1996. The Soling competition consisted of 10 round robin races that year. In 2000 and 2004, there were 16 races for the 49er class.
Two different point systems have been used. In the simplest system, each boat is given points equivalent to its placing in a race; that is, 1 point for first place, 2 points for second, and so forth. From 1968 and 1992, negative points were awarded, based on the following scale: First place, 0; Second, 3; Third, 5.7; Fourth, 8; Fifth, 10; Sixth, 11.7; Seventh, 13. One point was added for each subsequent place below seventh.
Through 1984, all classes were open to men and women. In 1988, separate men's and women's competitions were added in some events, while others remain open to either sex.
Because sailing requires a large body of water, the sport has often been held some distance from the city hosting the Olympics. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, for example, sailing competition was staged in Savannah.
Here are the yachting/sailing venues for each Olympics:
1900 Meulan & Le Havre, France1908 Ryde & Firth of Clyde, Great Britain
1912 Nynashamn, Sweden
1920 Ostend, Belgium, & Amsterdam, Netherlands
1924 Le Havre, France
1928 Zuidersee, Netherlands
1932 Los Angeles, CA, United States
1936 Kiel, Germany
1948 Torquay, Great Britain
1952 Harmaja, Finland
1956 Port Philip, Australia
1960 Naples, Italy
1964 Fujisawa/Enoshima, Japan
1968 Acapulco, Mexico
1972 Kiel, Federal Republic of Germany
1976 Kingston, Ontario, Canada
1980 Tallinn, Soviet Union
1984 Long Beach, CA, United States
1988 Pusan, Korea
1992 Barcelona, Spain
1996 Savannah, GA, United States
2000 Sydney, Australia
2004 Hellinkio, Greece