Sailing at the 1968 Summer Olympics

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics) in Athens, Greece. With the exception of 1904 and the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1968 consisted of a total of five sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 14 October 1968 to 21 October 1968 off the coast of Acapulco in the Bay of Acapulco. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.

Sailing
at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
VenuesClub de Yates de Acapulco
DatesFirst race: 14 October 1968 (1968-10-14)
Last race: 21 October 1968 (1968-10-21)
Competitors251 from 41 nations
Boats123
← 1964
1972 →

Venue

Acapulco Bay is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Guerrero, 250 miles from Mexico City. The facilities at Club de Yates were improved and modified. 20,000 square metres of new docks provided with potable water, electricity and telephones were created. The buoys bearing colored flags delineated the three course areas.

Technical control was assured by a staff of measurers for gauging all yachts before racing.

The Olympic Village, located in the Caleta Hotel, provided accommodation for 503 competitors, trainers, team managers from 40 countries.

Competition

Overview

Continents Countries Classes Boats Male Female
5 41 5 123 251 0

Continents

  • Asia
  • Oceania
  • Europe
  • Americas

Countries

 Argentina  Australia  Austria
 Bahamas  Belgium  Bermuda
 Brazil  Canada  Ceylon
 Denmark  El Salvador  Spain
 Finland  France  West Germany
 Great Britain  East Germany  Greece
 Hong Kong  Hungary  Indonesia
 Virgin Islands  Italy  Jamaica
 Mexico  Netherlands  Norway
 New Zealand  Philippines  Poland
 Portugal  Puerto Rico  Switzerland
 Sweden  Thailand  Soviet Union
 Uruguay  United States  Venezuela
 Yugoslavia

Classes (equipment)

Class Type Event Sailors Trapeze Mainsail Jib/Genoa Spinnaker First OG Olympics so far
Finn Dinghy 1 0 + 1952 5
Flying Dutchman Dinghy 2 1 + + + 1960 3
Star Keelboat 2 0 + + 1932 8
Dragon Keelboat 3 0 + + + 1948 6
5.5 Metre Keelboat 3 0 + + + 1952 5

= Male, = Female, = Open

Medal summary

Event Gold Silver Bronze

1968: Finn
details

 Soviet Union (URS)
Valentin Mankin
 Austria (AUT)
Hubert Raudaschl
 Italy (ITA)
Fabio Albarelli

1968: Flying Dutchman
details

 Great Britain (GBR)
Rodney Pattisson
Iain MacDonald-Smith
 West Germany (FRG)
Ulli Libor
Peter Naumann
 Brazil (BRA)
Reinaldo Conrad
Burkhard Cordes

1968: Star
details

 United States (USA)
Lowell North
Peter Barrett
 Norway (NOR)
Peder Lunde Jr.
Per Wiken
 Italy (ITA)
Franco Cavallo
Camillo Gargano

1968: Dragon
details

 United States (USA)
George Friedrichs
Barton Jahncke
Gerald Schreck
 Denmark (DEN)
Aage Birch
Paul Lindemark Jørgensen
Niels Markussen
 East Germany (GDR)
Paul Borowski
Karl-Heinz Thun
Konrad Weichert

1968: 5.5 Metre
details

 Sweden (SWE)
Ulf Sundelin
Jörgen Sundelin
Peter Sundelin
 Switzerland (SUI)
Louis Noverraz
Bernhard Dunand
Marcel Stern
 Great Britain (GBR)
Robin Aisher
Paul Anderson
Adrian Jardine

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 United States2002
2 Great Britain1012
3 Soviet Union1001
 Sweden1001
5 Austria0101
 Denmark0101
 Norway0101
 Switzerland0101
 West Germany0101
10 Italy0022
11 Brazil0011
 East Germany0011
Totals (12 entries)55515

Remarks

Sailing

  • This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men-only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988.
  •  Paul Elvstrøm (DEN) was trying to win his fifth gold medal. This time in the Star. He came close. 4th.
  •  Rodney Pattison (GBR) won his first Olympic medal (Gold) in his boat Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It is difficult to appoint Olympic records to sailing, but the score of this Flying Dutchman team would hold probably the record of best Olympic score: DSQ, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2!
  • In each of the five classes there was a major difference in points between the gold and the silver medalists.

Sailors

During the Sailing regattas at the 1968 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

  • Royalties
    •  Norway, King of Norway, HRH Crown Prince Harald in the 5.5 Metre
  • Sport managers
    •  Belgium, President International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge in the Finn
    •  Finland, Future president International Sailing Federation, Peter Tallberg in the Star
    •  Canada, Future president International Sailing Federation, Paul Henderson in the Finn
    •  Greece. Future holder of the Silver Olympic Order, George Andreadis in the Flying Dutchman

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