IN, OUT, IN. WindsuRS:X Windsurfing will be back in the Olympic Games 2016.

“Another 4 years!!! Windsurfing back in and kite surfing is out again….. Strange mixed feelings but stoked to roll.” That´s the actual statement of 2012 RS:X Olympic Gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe on his Facebook account.

Yesterday was judgement day in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland at the ISAF meeting. The council decided abou the future of Olympic Windsurfing. And it saw a really surprising decision. The RS:X discipline for men and women, the Olympic One Design Class by NeilPryde, will be reinstated for the Olympic Games at Rio, Brazil 2016. It´s the 9th time that the men will compete for Olympic medals in windsurfing. The women will fight for medals for the 7th time. It´s the third time that the windsurfers will compete on the NeilPryde RS:X.

Read the final report by the ISAF on the the final results of the meetings .

The Olympic sailing classes for io 2016 announced by the ISAF yesterday . And RS:X is in, Kiteboarding not anymore (Source:ISAF).

The ISAF announced the news on their live ticker from the meeting yesterday afternoon  arond 4.30 pm (Source: ISAF).

Have a look on the full ticker here!

Many windsurfers supported the idea to bring windsurfing back as an Olympic discipline for 2016 and it obviously helped to reinstate RS:X for 2016. For the kitboarding representatives and as well for top kiteboarding racers the result was unexpected. We often talked to insiders in the previous months and weeks and all of them were sure that windsurfing is out of the game. Even at national events and local mainstream media kiteboarding had suddenly a much higher attention. But everything has changed again.

The ISAF council the annual conference in Ireland (Pic: ISAF).

We always told the people, who were sure that windsurfing is out, to stay objective and wait till November 10th, when the final decision will be announced. Now, on the second last day of the ISAF meeting the final decision was to choose windsurfing for men and women. Now all the countries can start their windsurfing trainings programms for the Olympic Games in 2016.

Let´s hope, that we will see a lot of new talented windsurfers, who will fight for the medals and present the sport of windsurfing in the best possible way in the public. Not as a feeder class for sailing, but as a funsport. And perhaps there is a chance to develop windsurfing gear in a more funboard oriented direction. We hope that the windsurfing industry has learnt something and move the Olympic windsurfing forward!

© Continentseven 2012

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