World Sailing Conference - Croce offers 11th Medal in the Confessional

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZ on 12 Nov 2016 World Sailing President Carlo Croce gave an emotional opening address at the World Sailing Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Standing accused of being unavailable for interviews by some of the sailing media, Croce took the opportunity to address several of the issues that have dogged the world body over the past four years and 12 months in particular.

'We say in my language that when you have pebbles in your shoes, you take them out,' Croce commented early in his President's Report. 'Today I will go through the ones I have, and I will take them all out.'

With that remark Croce proceeded to outline a litany of issues, some of which would have been known to the sailing world, and others only to World Sailing insiders.

First up was the much-ventilated issue of water quality and pollution at the Rio Olympics. 'We knew very well in the two years before going to Rio that we had all sorts of pressures and negative comments not only by the press but also by the MNAs. But we knew very well that with hard work we could overcome the very important problem of the pollution. In the end, it was not us that had to deal with it, but I think we had to do a lot of work that has not been seen.'

It was not clear from Croce's comments whether he was of the view that the issue should not have been pursued with the vigor that it was, or whether he was just making the point that with a lot of behind the scenes work the issue was resolved for the 2016 Olympics. Croce did not say specifically that it was not just Sailing that was affected, but at least four Olympic water sports.

'It was not a calculated risk. It was not a risk. We knew exactly where we were standing. We could stop everything going on within an hour if we had the warning from World Health (who were doing water testing at Rio every day of the Olympics).'

He concluded on that point by claiming that for all the words written and said that none of the sailors got so much as a headache from the water at Rio.


Then he moved through various issues including his ability and capability to lead World Sailing, the Gazprom sponsorship, his personal issues during the Olympics and his non-attendance at the Paralympics and responded to actual and hearsay against him financially.

Although he got quite emotional at times, and probably disclosed way too much information, Croce's genuine love for the sport shone through, even though by his own admission he struggled with the degree of difficulty of management of the organisation processes and governance with World Sailing, and it layers of working parties and Committees.

Then he moved onto the ongoing debate on the Olympic classes, the International Olympic Committee's stance for Tokyo2020, and the overturning of the Core Classes vote taken in November 2012, to provide some certainty and stability to the Olympic Sailing events.

Long story short is that the International Olympic Committee has changed its stance in several ways, largely as they have to address the more pressing issue of 'gigantism' of the Olympics.

First, they have become more accommodating with their requirements and have invited there Sports to put forward their proposals by February 2017 and will make a decision by May 2017. They seem to be less inclined to cherry-pick the events for media spectacle, but will pick and chose to achieve other goals such as gender equity and limitation on athlete numbers and cost.

Second, the IOC were able to see first-hand the Olympic Sailing regatta in Rio de Janeiro, and the final day in particular and were pleased with what they saw. (Similarly with the International Paralympic Committee during the Sailing Paralympics).

Then Croce advised the Council that it seemed from informal conversations with the IOC that provided competitor numbers were held at 380 sailors, there was a very real possibility of an 11th Medal for Sailing being approved by the IOC. A second offer was for an 11th Medal plus a Demonstration or Showcase Event. If successful the latter would not be included in the 380 athlete limitation but would be extra.

'The 11th medal opens the window for innovation,' Croce said. 'We also have the possibility of having a Showcase event.'

'We are looking at two options. We keep everything as it is, plus an 11th Medal. Or, we keep everything as it is, plus an 11th medal, plus a Showcase event.'

'We will make the decision probably by February after we have listened to all the proposals.'

'As far as I am concerned the ten classes that are there now are there forever,' he added.

That would exclude Kiteboarding as part of the Core Classes, and the new Kiteboard event would only come in if the 11th medal were in fact granted by the IOC, and if Kiteboarding was voted in by Council after the Kites had 'done their homework.'

Regarding the question of what gender equality/equity really means, Croce indicated there had been some softening around the previous hard-line approach by the IOC and that it could be met via a couple of different measures, and that it was no longer the determining issue that it had been previously.

For the Demonstration Event Croce was keen to promote a two-day offshore keelboat event, to be contested by one male and one female sailor from maybe each nation (with some qualification required) and for there to be no outside assistance such as weather routing.

'It is my dream event,' he said. 'A short 48-hour offshore regatta. That would be fantastic for the media. The (mixed) crew would be picked up from the existing classes at the Olympic venue.'

'So we have three options,' Croce said in conclusion. 'Only ten events. Ten plus one, or ten plus two.'

'I think the Kite is also a fantastic show. Having them on foils is something unbelievable. But I find the offshore race to be very interesting because it gives some sailors the opportunity to win two Medals. (A Medal from the say the Finn class in regular Sailing Olympics and another from the Showcase event.)

Croce then thanked the Council and Board for their efforts and support, before presenting the Beppe Croce Trophy (in memory of his father, also a President of World Sailing's forerunner, the International Yacht Racing Union) to long-serving World Sailing Board member, George Andreadis (GRE).