2016, Rio De Janeiro, the Olympic champions and the Grand Finale

by RS:X Class on 15 Aug 2016 Four years of training, four years of dedication, four years of relentless hard work and it all came down to arguably one of the best medal races in history. The men’s final reach separated bronze from fifth by barely a few board lengths whilst on the women’s course, the podium continuously shuffled throughout the entire race.

France have emerged as the top nation from the Men's and Women's Windsurfing at Rio 2016. It all came good for the French on the final, critical day of Medal Races on the notoriously tricky Sugarloaf Mountain race course.

For Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED) and Nick Dempsey (GBR) the men's Medal Race was a formality. The gold and silver medallists from London 2012 turned it on again for Rio and were another level above the rest of the fleet. In the early stages of the regatta, the British sailor had the legs on his Dutch rival, but gradually van Rijsselberghe found his form and stepped up another gear.

Looking back to the start of the RS:X competition, van Rijsselberghe commented, 'I was very fortunate that Nick went off like a cannon in the first couple of races because it really showed me like, 'okay, it's not going to be easy.' We never thought it was going to be easy but he really showed me that if I wanted this, I had to work for it. I tried, worked for it and I got it. It's great when you're sailing against guys that are really pushing you and challenging you. If you don't have that it would be very boring.'

Watching van Rijsselberghe was not boring and even his competitors acknowledge that it is a privilege to compete against such a talent. João Rodrigues (POR), competing at his seventh and final Olympics, commented, 'Dorian is like an artist, he has taken things to a new level the way he sails the RS:X and he does it with a smile on his face. Dorian is very popular in the fleet. He really loves what he does and he loves to share that with other people.'

Van Rijsselberghe celebrated his Olympic title with the Dutch royal family who watched him win the Medal Race. 'It's very nice that they came out here to watch the races and actually know what's going on. They're talking about me saying, 'you did this, you did that, how come the Spanish guy came to the front.' It's nice, not just shaking hands but to have a proper conversation.'

Although he knew he'd secured gold two days earlier it wasn't until Sunday evening that the bald Dutchman finally let his proverbial hair down, not fully able to celebrate the gold until he had completed the Medal Race. 'We are professional athletes and wait until the final moments. We had a wonderful week of sailing. We had crazy wind, everything went well and we didn't wait on the beach for days so we have had a good competition.'

For Dempsey, Rio 2016 was his Olympic swan song. The Briton has won three medals from five Games, so he knows what it's like to miss out and he wasn't taking his silver for granted. It has been a life of sacrifice dating back to his first Games in Sydney 2000. He hadn't drunk a beer for five months before the Games, but the evening he knew the silver was secure, he celebrated with three small beers. 'I had a hangover the next morning,' he smiled.

While the gold looked possible for a while, Dempsey is very happy with the silver. 'A year ago, I didn't know where I'd finish. At the Olympic Test event last year I wasn't anywhere near the podium so I had a lot of work to do. The last 12 months have gone really well and I've worked bloody hard, so it's nice to come here and have a chance of winning. To have the silver medal is pretty awesome.' Dempsey, who turned 36 during the competition, promises this really is the end of his career as a professional athlete. Now he intends to turn his passion for photography into a career.

Pierre Le Coq took the bronze medal after sailing his way past the reigning World Champion Piotr Myszka (POL) in the Medal Race. 'The sensation of crossing the line knowing that I secured third place was amazing,' said Le Coq. 'I had a difficult week and I never thought I could catch up to this point, so it's an amazing feeling to finish third at the Olympics. It's my first Olympics, all my family is here, all my friends are here, I just want to celebrate it with them. I really want to congratulate the two first, Dorian and Nick, they were very impressive this week.'

Perhaps Le Coq's performance was the inspiration that Charline Picon (FRA) needed for her even tougher assignment in the Women's Medal Race. With seven of the ten competitors in the hunt for gold, the final test would require nerves of steel.

One of the leading contenders, Stefania Elfutina (RUS), had a shocking start, being given a penalty turn for infringing Bryony Shaw (GBR) at the start line. Meanwhile Picon had not made the best of starts either, although she soon found a click of speed to move through the fleet to second by the first mark. However, Picon had to be careful because Peina Chen (CHN) had another gear downwind and shot up from sixth to second by the bottom of the first lap. China looked set to take the gold from France, but Picon held on in the light winds to the finish to secure the Olympic title, with Chen settling for silver. Despite her poor start Elfutina rallied to finish in seventh place and the 19-year-old just edged out the Medal Race winner Lillian de Geus (NED) for the bronze.

For the 31-year-old Picon, the Olympic title is the culmination of a long campaign in the RS:X class. Eighth at London 2012, she won the 2014 World Championships and had marked herself out as one of the favourites for gold in Rio. She dominated the first day of competition and was always in the hunt. A trained physiotherapist, she competes for the French Navy's Armee des Champions (Champions' Army) team.

There was no doubting what the victory meant to Picon. 'So many feelings and emotions at the finish line! It has been a really difficult week. Yesterday I counted all the points I lost because things didn't go as I wanted, I had some complicated moments. So winning the gold medal like this in this exciting Medal Race and with this Hollywood scenario, it's just incredible.

'After London, it has been four years of preparation, and we were fighting for three medals. Here I knew it could be my time, I believed it from the beginning but this morning I was absolutely stressed. I worked with my psychologist on making the stress work in my favour. I have come a long way since London. Winning the gold medal in the Medal Race on the finish line is....' Words failed her.

Chen commented, 'We were seven women fighting, but I tried not to think too much about that, I just wanted to do my race. I am not disappointed at finishing just two points behind the gold medal. I feel that I've given my best and am happy with the silver.'

Elfutina said, 'Before the start of the race I understood that it was going to be a crazy race, with seven girls fighting for three medals, and we also had the postponement flag so we had to wait ashore. It has been a really close battle, very interesting and unforgettable.

'Before the race I was thinking about how great it would be to be on the podium, but after the start and my 360º penalty I thought that everything was lost. I thought that the only way to get a medal was to pump, and that was what I did. I pumped and a few metres before the finish I realised I could get a medal. I am not disappointed with bronze, the bronze medal is great.'

The six Windsurfers were presented their medals by multiple Olympic Windsurfing medallist, New Zealand's Barbara Kendall and World Sailing Vice-President, Nazli Imre.

It couldn’t have been a more dramatic finish to the event, a huge congratulations are in order to all of the athletes and people that made it such a beautiful spectacle.

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	NED	Dorian Van Rysselberghe	5	3	1	4	1	1	4	1	1	1	1	(6)	2	31	25
2	GBR	Nick Dempsey	1	1	2	1	4	(8) RDG	2	5	8	5	7	8	8	60	52
3	FRA	Pierre Le Coq	7	7	12	6	3	2	8	10	(17)	2	3	12	14	103	86
4	POL	Piotr Myszka	4	5	5	2	2	3	12	2	6	13	(16)	16	18	104	88
5	GRE	Byron Kokkalanis	2	2	6	(13)	5	5	5	8	12	12	11	10	18 DPI	109	96
6	GER	Toni Wilhelm	8	4	13	10	9	4	1	7	(19)	7	8	19	10	119	100
7	BRA	Ricardo Santos	6	9	7	3	16	(30)	21	9	9	6	9	11	12	148	118
8	HKG	Cheng Chun Leung	3	6	11	5	6	16	9	13	13	21	17	(26)	6	152	126
9	ESP	Ivan Pastor Lafuente	17	19	10	7	7	(37) UFD	11	22	16	9	2	3	4	164	127
10	ITA	Mattia Camboni	11	13	4	(37) UFD	37 DNF	9	10	21	3	3	5	1	20	174	137
11	POR	João Rodrigues	21	10	(23)	15	15	10	15	12	4	4	12	7		148	125
12	DEN	Sebastian Fleischer	15	14	9	12	(22)	11	17	20	2	11	6	18		157	135
13	CHN	Aichen Wang	16	18	8	18	(19)	15	6	4	15	10	10	15		154	135
14	SUI	Mateo Sanz Lanz	(24)	15	21	8	14	8	20	11	11	19	4	5		160	136
15	JPN	Makoto Tomizawa	10	8	18	19	13	(22)	7	14	18	15	14	2		160	138
16	RUS	Max Oberemko	(27)	25	14	24	17	13	3	3	10	8	13	9		166	139
17	ISR	Shahar Zubari	9	17	20	22	(37) DNF	18	19	6	7	17	21	4		197	160
18	KOR	Tae Hoon Lee	14	20	3	9	18	7	(33)	17	27	14	22	14		198	165
19	CYP	Andreas Cariolou	12	12	16	23	10	6	18	(27)	23	22	19	20		208	181
20	MEX	David Mier y Teran	28	21	22	26	21	17	(32)	15	5	16	15	21		239	207
21	ARG	Bautista Saubidet Birkner	20	16	19	17	12	23	14	25	24	18	(29)	22		239	210
22	BLR	Mikita Tsirkun	23	27	25	16	8	(32)	16	19	22	24	18	17		247	215
23	UKR	Oleksandr Tugaryev	22	31	27	11	(37) DNF	12	13	16	30	20	30	13		262	225
24	CRO	Luka Mratovic	13	11	15	21	(37) DNF	19	27	18	34	26	31	30		282	245
25	HUN	Aron Gadorfalvi	30	28	29	25	20	20	25	(37) DNF	26	27	24	23		314	277
26	LTU	Juozas Bernotas	19	23	17	29	(37) DNF	14	26	37 DNF	21	37 UFD	26	29		315	278
27	VEN	Daniel Flores	18	22	26	20	11	33	34	(37) DNF	32	37 UFD	23	25		318	281
28	USA	Pedro Pascual	25	26	28	28	(37) DNF	28	22	26	28	23	20	32		323	286
29	THA	Natthaphong Phonoppharat	32	29	32	14	(37) DNF	21	30	24	25	25	28	27		324	287
30	COL	Santiago Grillo	29	24	24	32	(37) DNF	24	28	23	14	29	35	37 DNF		336	299
31	CZE	Karel Lavicky	26	30	30	30	(37) DNF	25	24	37 DNF	29	37 DNF	25	31		361	324
32	TPE	Hao Chang	34	34	31	27	(37) DNF	34	35	37 DNF	31	28	27	28		383	346
33	SEY	JEAN-MARC GARDETTE	36	35	33	31	23	31	29	(37) DNF	35	37 DNF	32	33		392	355
34	SIN	Leonard Ong	33	33	35	33	(37) DNF	27	36	37 DNF	20	37 DNF	34	37 DNF		399	362
35	TUR	Onur Cavit Biriz	31	32	(37) UFD	34	37 DNF	29	23	37 DNF	33	37 DNF	33	37 DNF		400	363
36	ALG	Hamza Bouras	35	36	34	35	(37) DNF	26	31	37 DNF	36	37 DNF	36	24		404	367

Pos	NOC	Crew	Race													Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	MR	Total	Net
1	FRA	Charline Picon	1	2	1	4	5	10	5	11	8	(27) UFD	3	10	4	91	64
2	CHN	Peina Chen	9	11	11	(15)	7	1	4	10	4	1	1	1	6	81	66
3	RUS	Stefania Elfutina	2	5	3	6	2	9	8	4	6	3	(16)	7	14	85	69
4	NED	Lilian De Geus	3	4	14	3	3	7	15	(19)	5	2	7	5	2	89	70
5	ESP	Marina Alabau Neira	8	7	2	8	6	8	7	2	1	(27) DSQ	9	3	10	98	71
6	ITA	Flavia Tartaglini	(12)	1	5	1	1	4	1	12	10	9	5	6	16	83	71
7	ISR	Maayan Davidovich	5	6	6	11	4	3	2	(15)	14	5	2	2	18	93	78
8	BRA	Patricia Freitas	6	8	4	2	13	(16)	10	1	3	8	8	9	8	96	80
9	GBR	Bryony Shaw	7	(20)	9	7	14	12	3	5	2	4	4	4	12	103	83
10	FIN	Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén	4	9	8	5	9	5	(27) DNF	3	12	10	6	8	20	126	99
11	EST	Ingrid Puusta	(18)	13	12	10	8	11	9	18	7	16	14	14		150	132
12	NOR	Maria Mollestad	14	10	(20)	14	18	20	14	6	11	6	17	11		161	141
13	MEX	Demita Vega de Lille	11	18	18	9	10	17	(27) DNF	8	13	17	11	15		174	147
14	POL	Malgorzata Bialecka	13	21	13	23	12	6	(27) DNF	14	9	11	13	18		180	153
15	DEN	Laerke Buhl-Hansen	17	16	17	20	16	13	12	9	(21)	12	10	12		175	154
16	USA	Marion Lepert	10	3	10	13	12.9 RDG	23	6	23	15	(27) UFD	19	22		183.9	156.9
17	HKG	Sonia Lo	15	15	15	16	19	(22)	11	17	17	7	12	13		179	157
18	THA	Siripon Kaewduang-Ngam	19	23	22	18	11	2	(27) DNF	7	18	14	15	17		193	166
19	GRE	Angeliki Skarlatou	16	17	7	12	17	15	(27) DNF	20	16	15	20	16		198	171
20	JPN	Megumi Iseda	23	22	19	22	15	14	(27) DNF	13	19	13	18	20		225	198
21	ARG	Maria Tejerina Mackern	21	12	16	17	21	19	16	16	24	(27) DNF	23	21		233	206
22	TUR	Dilara Uralp	20	19	23	24	20	21	(27) DNF	21	20	19	24	19		257	230
23	HUN	Sara Cholnoky	22	14	21	19	23	24	13	22	25	(27) DNF	25	27 DNF		262	235
24	LAT	Ketija Birzule	24	24	(27) DNF	21	24	26	27 DNF	25	23	18	21	23		283	256
25	SIN	Audrey Yong	25	25	24	25	22	18	(27) DNF	24	22	27 DNC	27 DNC	27 DNC		293	266
26	ALG	KATIA BELABBAS	(27) DNF	27 DNF	27 DNF	27 DNF	27 DNF	25	27 DNF	27 DNF	27 DNF	27 DNF	22	27 DNF		317	290