ISAF President - I have a dream !

by Dan Ibsen on 1 May 2015 International Sailing Federation and Aarhus City/Sailing Aarhus signed the contract for the ISAF World Sailing Championships 2018 in Aarhus at Wednesday.

The goal for ISAF and Aarhus is that a total number of 100 nations could be reached for the event, which will mean that the ISAF Worlds 2018 will become the largest combined Worlds for the Olympic classes ever held. Earlier events have been successfully organized in Cadiz 2003, Cascais 2007, Perth 2011 and Santander 2015.

During the contract signing ceremony ISAF President Carlo Croce revealed his thoughts about the future of the ISAF Worlds:

“I have a dream – we have already talked about including Kiteboarding in the event and we look forward to finding a good solution for this. My dream is that Aarhus also will include the Paralympic classes in the event, in order to support ISAF’s efforts with regard to get sailing back in the Paralympics. If possible in 2020, but otherwise for 2024.”

This probably came as a surprise for Aarhus City/Sailing Aarhus, but on the other hand they without hesitation said that they would do everything possible in order to fulfil the dream of the president.

By adding Kiteboarding and the Paralympic Classes to the ISAF Worlds 2018, this would become the largest Championship and international event ever held for Olympic and Paralympic Classes, and the bay of Aarhus will for sure become a true festival of sailing, showcasing the world best athletes in sailing.

The ISAF Worlds 2018 partners are City of Aarhus, Sailing Aarhus, Sport Aarhus Events, Sport Event Denmark and Danish Sailing Association, and they have already started planning not only the event in 2018, but also an ISAF Worlds Test Event 2017, and at the same time the new Aarhus International & National Training Centre is expected to be ready.

Carlo Croce continued: ”The ISAF Sailing World Championships is one of our pinnacle events and it's very complicated to run, you cannot do it by yourself. The Danish organisers are highly competent and the team convey the feeling that they are a strong, united group.”

“The legacy of sailing in Aarhus is fantastic and there is a great opportunity ahead. We are very happy to be taking the event to Aarhus in 2018.

'ISAF is looking for universality and having 100 nations and upwards of 1,600 sailors competing on the Bay of Aarhus in 2018 will be amazing for the sport.”

When ISAF received the bid from Aarhus, I was very happy. I was not a part of the committee dealing with the bids, but I hoped Aarhus will get the event, as both ISAF and I are sure that you will deliver an extraordinary event.”

“This is very important for the sailors. And at the same time this is a strong promotion of sailing and important in order to gain more television and media coverage in the future.”

“I fell at home in Aarhus, and feel like being among good friends. I have fallen in love with the city, and is impressed to see so many young people in the streets. This is a lifestyle and environment that I love.”

“The ISAF World will deliver a lot to Aarhus, and I hope all the inhabitants will support the whole event strongly. We experienced in Santander that it is possible to create a great public interest in sailing with around 30.000 people at the opening ceremony and we got a lot of TV and media exposure. ISAF will support the event strongly in order to accomplish this again in 2018.”