ISAF Olympic Fallout - From the Kiteboard Association

by IKA on 17 Nov 2010 ISAF - We surely made a huge step forward at this years ISAF annual conference with regards to kiteboarding's participation in the 2016 Olympic Games, however at the moment there are only two medals available for four possible board sport event which up till now only allow for a limited number of choices.

- both parties could fight it out in a policy of non-cooperation, which may succeed in the short term but may well come back and bite one later

- the board sports community comes up with a creative solution and helps ISAF out of the self-created dilemma
ISAF council accepted - probably for the first time - the recommendation of its specialists committee and decided provisionally on a slate of events for the 2016 Olympics.

Following the explanations of the Events Committee as well of the Olympic Commission, listing 2 'Board' events for 2016 could mean either the one or the other - or a combination of both.

While setting two of the most attractive events against each other still doesn't look very wise in respect of the requirements of the International Olympic Committees Programme Commission, it is now up to us to 'make a plan'.

So what does this actually mean?

Windsurfing is about to lose its permanent ticket in the Summer Olympic Games
OR
Kiteboarding is closer than ever to securing an inaugural place in the Olympics.

The first question that we should ask ourselves is whether we should allow ISAF to pitch the two board sports communities against each other, or if we are able to find a solution that allows both sports to keep its integrity while allowing both participation in the Games.

www.internationalkiteboarding.org