Sailing at the 1968 Summer Olympics

Sailing at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venues	Acapulco
Dates	First race: 14 October 1968 Last race: 21 October 1968
Sailors	247 from 40 countries
Boats	123
Top ranked countries
United States: 2   0   0     Great Britain: 1   0   1     Sweden: 1   0   0     Soviet Union: 1   0   0

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 possible 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program.

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 of the coast of Acapulco in the Bay of Acapulco.

The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.

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	40	5	123	247	0

Continents

• Asia
• Oceania
• Europe
• Americas

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1968 Olympic Games.
Blue: Water
Gray: Never participated in OG
Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG
Green: Country participated for the first time
Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games
Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Argentina (ARG)  Australia (AUS)  Austria (AUT)  Bahamas (BAH)  Belgium (BEL)  Bermuda (BER)  Brazil (BRA)  Canada (CAN)  Ceylon (CEY)  Denmark (DEN)  El Salvador (ESA)  Spain (ESP)  Finland (FIN)  France (FRA)  West Germany (FRG)  Great Britain (GBR)  East Germany (GDR)  Greece (GRE)  Hong Kong (HKG)  Hungary (HUN)  Indonesia (INA)  Virgin Islands (ISV)  Italy (ITA)  Jamaica (JAM)  Mexico (MEX)  Netherlands (NED)  Norway (NOR)  New Zealand (NZL)  Philippines (PHI)  Poland (POL)  Portugal (POR)  Puerto Rico (PUR)  Switzerland (SUI)  Sweden (SWE)  Thailand (THA)  Soviet Union (URS)  Uruguay (URU)  United States (USA)  Venezuela (VEN)  Yugoslavia (YUG)

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

1968 Olympic Classes designs

Medal summary

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1968: Finn	Soviet Union (URS) Valentin Mankin	Austria (AUT) Hubert Raudaschl	Italy (ITA) Fabio Albarelli
1968: Flying Dutchman	Great Britain (GBR) Rodney Pattisson Iain MacDonald-Smith	West Germany (FRG) Ulli Libor Peter Naumann	Brazil (BRA) Reinaldo Conrad Burkhard Cordes
1968: Star	United States (USA) Lowell North Peter Barrett	Norway (NOR) Peder Lunde, Jr. Per Wiken	Italy (ITA) Franco Cavallo Camillo Gargano
1968: Dragon	United States (USA) George Friedrichs Barton Jahncke Gerald Schreck	Denmark (DEN) Aage Birch Poul Richard Høj Jensen Niels Markussen	East Germany (GDR) Paul Borowski Karl-Heinz Thun Konrad Weichert
1968: 5.5 Metre	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

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	2	0	0	2
2	Great Britain (GBR)	1	0	1	2
3	Sweden (SWE)	1	0	0	1
	Soviet Union (URS)	1	0	0	1
5	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	0	1
	Austria (AUT)	0	1	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	1	0	1
10	Italy (ITA)	0	0	2	2
11	East Germany (GDR)	0	0	1	1
	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
Total		5	5	5	15

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 (NOR), King of Norway, HrH Crownprince Harald in the 5.5 Metre
• Sportmanagers
  •  Belgium (BEL), President International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge in the Finn
  •  Finland (FIN), Future president International Sailing Federation, Peter Tallberg in the Star
  •  Canada (CAN), Future president International Sailing Federation, Paul Henderson in the Finn
  •  Greece (GRE). Future holder of the Silver Olympic Order, George Andreadis in the Flying Dutchman

Sailors at the 1968 Olympic Games
In Finn: Jacques Rogge  In 5.5 Metre: Harald V of Norway

Notes

References

• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume One Part One (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume One Part Two (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Two Part One (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Two Part Two (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Three Part One (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Three Part Two (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Four Part One (pdf).
• Organizing Committee for the Games of the XIX Olympiad (1968). The Games of the XIX Olympiad Mexico 1968, The Official Report of the Organizing Committee Volume Four Part Two (pdf).
• Hugh Drake & Paul Henderson (2009). Canada's Olympic Sailing Legacy, Paris 1924 – Beijing 2008. Toronto: CYA.
• "Mexico 1968". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee.