World Sailing joins forces with the International Olympic Committee to share open sea emergency protocol

Bringing together guidance from nine ASOIF sports, select International Federations, and the medical department of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, the series of videos are intended to guide medical and operational teams on best practices, illustrating various scenarios such as sand and water venues.

Dr Nebojša Nikolic, World Sailing Chief Medical Officer for Paris 2024, said, “We are proud to collaborate with fellow ASOIF members to promote consistency, preparedness, and the highest standards of care across different fields of play. Even though each sport is unique and practices will vary, the videos demonstrate gold standard procedures that can be followed at events worldwide.

“World Sailing is committed to adopting these practices, recognising them not just as a safety measure for its own athletes, but as a testament to the powerful, collaborative spirit of the Olympic movement where federations work together to safeguard the well-being of every participant, regardless of their sport.”

For sailing, specifically, the enhancement of hydrofoil technology has dramatically increased boat speeds, bringing with it a greater risk of high-energy trauma and life-threatening lacerations. To address this evolving danger, the new protocols demonstrate gold standard procedures for extricating a sailing athlete from open sea waters, clearly highlighting the imperative need for immediate access to and application of tourniquets, alongside essential coordination with onshore emergency services.

The emergency extrication procedure serves as supplemental information to the World Sailing Medical References, specifically World Sailing Race Course Medical Support Structure and World Sailing Trauma Recovery Kit, as a means to visually demonstrate the procedures for emergency evacuation from the Race Course.

The full series of videos are available to watch here.