The role of International Federations, as defined by the Olympic Charter, is: “to assume the responsibility for the technical control and direction of their sports at the Olympic Games.”
Early Years
Yachting was first contested as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Games in Paris. It was next on the Olympic Programme at the 1908 London Games and has been a part of every Olympic Games since then. In 2000, the sport changed it name to become sailing.
ISAF was formed as the International Yacht Racing Union in 1907. Following on from the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave responsibly for the technical control of the yachting events at the Games to the IYRU. An immediate impact was made with the introduction of the Olympic Class Monotype dinghy, a one person event. Entries in this event were largely responsible for the 19 nations that competed across the three yachting events, at that time, by far the largest number of nations represented in the yachting events at the Games.
Modern Times
Since those early years, the sailing events at the Games have grown in number and the number of nations represented has increased dramatically. In 1988, the first women’s only events were introduced, and since then the number and proportion of women competitors has increased dramatically. In 2000, the high performance skiff dinghy was introduced to the Games for the first time following equipment trials held by ISAF.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Sailing Competition, 400 athletes, representing over 60 nations will compete across 11 events.
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