19 May 2019 – London, England
ILCA is pleased to report that the World Sailing Council voted to re-select the Laser class and Laser Radial class sailing dinghies as Equipment for the Men’s and Women’s singlehanded competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The World Sailing Council, which represents sailing in every region of the globe, voted via secret ballot 36 to 5 and 37 to 4 to keep the world’s most popular racing dinghies in one of the worlds most prominent sporting events. The overwhelming support for the ILCA bid, the only bid submitted by a class association rather than a builder, was the culmination of a tough evaluation program and is a testament to the strength of ILCA as a world wide organization of sailors dedicated to their sport at all levels of competition.
The vote was an important milestone but is not the end of the process. All contractual agreements must be successfully concluded by 1 August or the council will select new Equipment. ILCA has been working to ensure that the class is able to implement World Sailing’s FRAND compliance policy, which is a requirement for Olympic Equipment. ILCA is looking forward to a scheduled meeting later this week with representatives of World Sailing, Performance Sailcraft Austrlia, Performance Sailcraft Japan, and LaserPerformance, to look for ways we can move forward together for the benefit of sailors and the sport worldwide.
[photo credit Robert Hajduk]