Marina da Gloria - venue for the Olympic Regatta in Rio 2016
Rio de Janeiro winning the bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games is exciting news. The first time the Games will take place in South America, for starters. Rio is a really exciting city, some would say too exciting. Anyone who has seen the film 'City of God' would know something about that.
But what's it going to be like for sailing?
Well, it puts sailing right back at the heart of the Olympic Games, something we haven't seen since the racing on Sydney Harbour in 2000.
But... I've been to Rio twice to report on the stopover for the Volvo Ocean Race, and I can scarcely recall a breath of wind the whole time I was there. Then again, that was in March, and the Games will be in August. So here's hoping it will be a little breezier than that.
Weather expert Chris Bedford provides this analysis on the Scuttlebutt website:
"Because sea breezes are weaker and the wind is more variable, average wind speeds are the lightest of the four cities at around 7 knots. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The wind is fairly predictable and it is often obvious in the morning whether an offshore wind will likely tamp out any chances of a sea breeze or if a light sea breeze be able to blow up into the sailing area."
Click here, to read the rest of Chris's views on Rio weather.
Of course the fact that sailing is one of Brazil's strongest Olympic sports can only be good. The st
rong legacy of success laid down by the likes of Torben Grael and Robert Scheidt means that there will be strong local attention on yachting. So why, by the way, do you think Rio won the bid ahead of the other contenders Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo? After all, even the Obamas flew in to make the case for the Windy City.
Here's our theory. Isabel Swan (pictured right, and below with Pele) was one of the delegates for the Rio bid. How could the Olympic selection committee resist? Isabel won a bronze medal in the 470 in Qingdao last year, crewing for Fernanda Oliveira, but now she's teaming up with Torben Grael's daughter Martine, who won the ISAF Youth Worlds in Brazil earlier this summer.
© AP Photo: Isabel winning the Rio bid with Pele
Below you'll see a cool video of Isabel sailing with Fernanda in the 470....
Nick Dewhirst has been a thorn in the side of ISAF these past few years, leading a global charge to get the multihull back into the Olympic Regatta for Rio 2016. In the build-up to the ISAF Annual Conference in Athens, Nick says why he thinks the multihull will be invited back in from the cold and back into the bosom of Olympic sailing...
Phil Jones has been telling SailJuice about the radical recommendations by ISAF's Olympic Commission for the future of Olympic Sailing. For anyone who desires the status quo, the Olympic Commission's report won't make for comfortable reading. But if sailing is to survive and thrive as an Olympic sport, then ISAF and the politicians really need to sit up and take note of Jones's team's findings....
Here's the List of Entries to the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta 2009. SailJuice.com is going to be in Weymouth reporting from on and off the water. Send in your requests for who you want us to interview, and whoever is the most popular choice, we'll go after them and get the word from the sailors that you most want to hear from...
Lucy Mcgregor learned her trade crewing for Shirley Robertson in the Yngling during the build-up to the last Olympics. Sarah Ayton's team ended up winning the Olympic slot for Great Britain, but now Mcgregor is back on the Olympic campaign trail, this time as skipper of her own match race campaign. SailJuice spoke to Mcgregor at the European Match Racing Championships in Denmark, and the World ranked No.3 sailor tells what she learned from sailing with a double Olympic Champion and also looks forward to the next three years until Weymouth 2012...
