Rio 2016 - The lesson of Barcelona's Olympic sailing legacy

by Sail-World.com NZL on 26 May 2016
With all the brouhaha surrounding the missed opportunity to clean up Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, former ISAF (now World Sailing) President and former IOC member, Paul Henderson provides this insight into how the Sailing Olympics have left a very positive legacy when permanent facilities have been built.

In response to speculation that Sailing will have to comply with the detailed dictates of the International Olympic Committee or be tossed out of the Five Ring Circus, Henderson notes that 'Sailing has been in the Olympics since Pierre De Coubertin conceived the Olympic Games in 1896.'

'Sailing is still one of the largest participatory sports in the World today with a unquestioned tradition.'

'Sailing uses the wind and sea as we find them which is environmentally sensitive.'

Then he points to how the facilities left by Sailing before, during and after the extremely successful Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He writes:

In June 1987, Barcelona was chosen over Paris to host the 1992 Olympic Games. Barcelona bid with two sailing venues, Barcelona and Palma, Majorca. Sailing President Tallberg designated me a committee of one to study the proposals and report to the executive with a strong directive to pick Palma.

Barcelona Mayor Pasqual Maragall i Mira put extreme pressure on me to select his city. He asked me to meet with their Olympic engineering department and inspect their plans for the Olympic Village.

Maragall proposed that the sailing venue be in the old port, which was heavily polluted.

I informed him that it was unacceptable. I also explained that the sailing waters off Barcelona needed to be cleaned of the raw sewage that was flowing directly into the Mediterranean.

On my visit to the engineering department, I was shown a detailed maquette of the plans for the Olympic Village. It was to be built to revitalize an old industrial wasteland facing onto the Mediterranean. They had planned a long walking pier out into the sea with a tower and restaurant, and promenades along the waterfront.

As usual, I put my foot in my mouth when I off-handedly threw out a suggestion to the engineers: “Why don’t you just square off the pier and enclose an Olympic harbour inside?”

I returned to my hotel room and within minutes my phone rang. It was Mayor Maragall.

“I am sending a car to pick you up. Please be in my office as soon as possible.”

When I arrived at his office, he immediately came to the point.

“Did you say you would put the Olympic sailing regatta in Barcelona if we built the marina where the long pier is proposed?”

“Yes sir,” I dutifully responded.

“It will be done and Barcelona expects you to deliver on your word,” Maragall pronounced.

“What about the sewage in the sea?” I countered.

“We will do everything to clean that up also,” Maragall promised—and he did deliver.

My report to Sailing executive strongly favoured Barcelona and that was where Olympic Sailing was held.

They went along with my recommendation in choosing Barcelona. Tallberg appointed me to oversee the marina installation. I was actively involved with the architects and engineers in the brilliant design of the facility, the projected cost of which was some 250 million dollars. The Catalans, renowned as great businessmen, added condominiums to the boat slips and onshore restaurants, and sold the whole project for 350 million dollars, turning the sailing venue into the most profitable and utilized facility of the Barcelona Games.

Carlos Ferrer, the late IOC member in Spain, facetiously named it “Henderson Harbour” at the Opening.

As an added tribute to Toronto citizens, a large sculpture of a fish by Frank Gehry overlooks the venue.

In 2005, I had the privilege of sitting on the IOC commission evaluating the bids for the 2012 Olympic Games, including Madrid’s. The engineer planning the new harbour proposed for Palma looked directly at me during his presentation and said,

“Henderson Harbour in Barcelona is so successful that we are doubling its size. The new one in Palma will be equally as successful. Thank you for your vision, Paul.”

He was one of the engineers I had met in Barcelona 20 years before. At my age, it is nice when someone remembers what happened. City planners come from all over the world to see the Barcelona Olympic Harbour and what it did to revitalize their waterfront. Mayor Miller of Toronto took a very large contingent to see it recently, in view of the fact that Toronto’s Portland’s area remains an industrial wasteland. I was not invited. It’s tough being a prophet in your own land!

The Barcelona waterfront is a prime example of what can be achieved as a legacy to citizens as a result of hosting the Olympics. It is sad to see that the naysayers dwell only on costs, never allowing that the Games permit a city to achieve 30 years of urban renewal in seven. Barcelona ranks first among the exemplars of this economic and cultural reality—it is an indisputable fact that the 1992 Olympics were the key to Barcelona’s transformation into one of the great cities of modern Europe.

The forward thinking Maragall was a pleasure to deal with when he was Barcelona’s mayor, and it did not surprise me that he was later elected president of Catalonia.

From 'The Pope of Sailing' by Paul Franklin Henderson, still available on Amazon.com