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.[1]

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

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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

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Overview

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

Continents

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  • Asia
  • Oceania
  • Europe
  • Americas

Countries

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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)

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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

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

1968: Dragon
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  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
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  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

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RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  United States (USA)2002
2  Great Britain (GBR)1012
3  Soviet Union (URS)1001
  Sweden (SWE)1001
5  Austria (AUT)0101
  Denmark (DEN)0101
  Norway (NOR)0101
  Switzerland (SUI)0101
  West Germany (FRG)0101
10  Italy (ITA)0022
11  Brazil (BRA)0011
  East Germany (GDR)0011
Totals (12 entries)55515

Remarks

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Sailing

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  • 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

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

Notes

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  1. ^ "Sailing at the 1968 Summer Olympics". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 June 2020.

References

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