Awesome effort Grae, congratulations.

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

Well done Grae, what an effort, so close, legend!

We've argued over this format for years on here like Doug said, seems so stupid to anyone who's grown up with 'traditional sailing'. Given the race is like 5 minutes, why not at least have a best of 3 or something. Feel for the British Chick, dominates the series, gets Bronze....gutted.

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mr love said..
Awesome effort Grae, congratulations.

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

Yes, but in what sports does an unpredictable element have such an effect? The running track doesn't just change randomly in the middle of the race, for example. There's a very good reason why the whole sport of sailing moved away from events where just one short race decided the whole thing.

Surely if the final was a true test then it would closely mirror the results of the other races, but it doesn't seem to do so. One could say one may as well just have one race for the whole Olympics, or maybe just two or three.

Another point is that if people want viewers then why only keep them watching for one race? What's wrong with even a best of two, with the last race a tiebreaker if required?

One interesting point is that the sailing "medal factory" seems to have run dry for the Uk, Australia and NZ. It looks as if Matt Wearn almost has the Laser/ILCA 7 in the bag with a huge lead and the wind picking up, but the Euros and Israel are doing very well. That could change the funding for Australian Sailing.

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mr love said..

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

I tuned into Stan Sports about an hour ago to see a Dutch guy win a race then i swapped over to watch the athletics.

Something about all foil racing that makes watching golf or should i say Test cricket look exciting.

With the board rarely touching the water it becomes very predictable.

Sure, they are faster by a good margin over fins but as a spectator sport i think sailing with a fin is far and away a better watch granted conditions at the Olympics make having a fin slalom competition very unpredictable.

On the whole I think it was a validation of the IQFoil structure, EXCEPT - the final medal race should have been at least twice as long. To have both Gold Medals determined by the choice of side on the single upwind beat was disappointing. Emma chose to cover Sharon and sort of overstood the windward mark to the left, while the right side was lifted. The only tactical thing about it was that Sharon seemed to have kind of forced Emma out there. Then, Thom got forced left by the close racing at the leeward gate and that turned into a lift also, and that was the whole ballgame.

Very disappointing for Emma and I'd have thought it would have been disappointing for Grae also except he seemed totally psyched with silver - possibly due to the presence of what must have been his girlfriend. Not to generalize excessively but Aussie in general has shown great esprit and sportsmanship throughout these games.

HERO.

I thought this was supposed to be a thread about Grae Morris not a whinge fest about formats, fin v foil, sour grapes about others winning etc. Grae dident look like he was upset he looked like a delighted silver meddle winner, and so he should.

Great result - first sailboarder for 20 years from aus ? At Olympic Games.

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Pcdefender said..

mr love said..

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

I tuned into Stan Sports about an hour ago to see a Dutch guy win a race then i swapped over to watch the athletics.

Something about all foil racing that makes watching golf or should i say Test cricket look exciting.

With the board rarely touching the water it becomes very predictable.

Sure, they are faster by a good margin over fins but as a spectator sport i think sailing with a fin is far and away a better watch granted conditions at the Olympics make having a fin slalom competition very unpredictable.

Hahaha, doesn't sound like you've watched much foiling at all. Nothing predictable there at all!
One tiny mistake and a top sailor will be off his foil and out of contention, if not off his board and into the water in fine style.
Maybe try it yourself in order to better under the skill and finesse. Otherwise, Enjoy your golf!

Great result - first sailboarder for 20 years from aus ? At Olympic Games.

Great result - first sailboarder for 20 years from aus ? At Olympic Games.

What a legend. So happy for him and his entire support team

I enjoyed it, close racing and almost the correct result. Given so little was shown on FTA I can't see how this will help grow the sport. Maybe Grae should go on a National tour and show off his skills and loot.

Well done Grae, a fantastic result!

Fantastic effort Grae! Just so good seeing you super excited with your result rather than being down in the dumps for not winning the gold. Your off-the-water demeanor is a credit to you (and your family).
Inspires me to get the windfoil kit out for a run ....almost

Congrats to Grae. Does anyone know if he came from a dinghy background or pure windsurfing?

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Flying Dutchman said..
Hopefully Aussie Gold and NZ Silver!

@thedoor story here

Great to see the support network behind this result!!

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Mr Keen said..

Flying Dutchman said..
Hopefully Aussie Gold and NZ Silver!

@thedoor story here

Cheers. Is this legendary Dad Morris a seabreezer?

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thedoor said..
Congrats to Grae. Does anyone know if he came from a dinghy background or pure windsurfing?

Grae has sailed some boats but I would consider his background to be pure windsurfing.

What's interesting about the young guys now though is lots of them (Grae especially) spend an incredible amount of time on foil surfing boards and winging. As we know; foil boards are just a completely different beast to a formula board or an RSX. You could see it on the PWA that the guys who dedicated themselves to foils very early on (a la Nico Goyard) really had a huge advantage when the tour moved to basically all foiling events.

It's a very specific skillset to keep a big foil under control in high winds and big changes of direction like buoy rounding and even foiling tacks (I didn't see any in Paris, but all the top guys can do them!)

THE LEGENDS LIST...

Lars Kleppich - Bronze 1992
Grae Morris - Silver 2024

Sorry to move on beyond this great effort but lets start campaigning to have the 2028 event run in San Fran and not windless LA.....

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mr love said..
Sorry to move on beyond this great effort but lets start campaigning to have the 2028 event run in San Fran and not windless LA.....

If it's usually windless, then it will be blowing for the Olympics
They always get the opposite of what is expected.

Amazing performance--many congrats Grae! Recall seeing him on Botany as a young kid :)

Btw, LA isn't windless; we've done US nationals @ Cabrillo beach, very consistent and strong sea breezes for powered FW and slalom racing back in the day -- definitely much windier than most races in Marseille!

Couple of funny takes in some of these:

www.nine.com.au/sport/olympics/paris-2024-mens-windsurfing-final-result-grae-morris-silver-20240803-p5jz7d.html

7news.com.au/sport/olympics/young-aussie-grae-morris-claims-wind-surfing-medal-in-30-year-first-c-15581955

www.news.com.au/sport/more-sports/silver-medalist-grae-morris-shares-hilarious-advice-from-dad/video/eff098c16e0c20f6100126c863da0861

www.olympics.com.au/news/go-go-grae-morris-windsurfer-wins-silver/

www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/03/paris-olympics-austrtalia-grae-morris-wind-surfing-silver-medal

www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-04/paris-olympic-games-grae-morris-windsurfing-silver-medal/104180420

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bel29 said..
Amazing performance--many congrats Grae! Recall seeing him on Botany as a young kid :)

Btw, LA isn't windless; we've done US nationals @ Cabrillo beach, very consistent and strong sea breezes for powered FW and slalom racing back in the day -- definitely much windier than most races in Marseille!

I hope so...

I can tell you that in BRISBANE 2032 there is absolutely zero wind in winter when the games will be on. Fingers crossed somebody smart decides to run the sailing up at the Barrier Reef in 20-25 knots ;-)

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mr love said..
Awesome effort Grae, congratulations.

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

Super well done to Grae - it was an awesome campaign to a great position on the biggest stage. Plenty to look forward to in LA.

But the medal race format needs to be reviewed.
To not reflect the quantum of domination of the rest of the regatta is odd and the single race does not at all account for the number of variables faced when racing.

Anyway there is lots of angst in the system and calls for change.

There are plenty of other options - make it a 3 race final with no drops, adopt the kite system, move to the sailing medal system or something else
Surely the IQ Class and World Sailing needs to undertake a review to ensure that the athletes are put first and that the medal race format delivers the best sailor over the entire regatta winning the medal.

Maybe the current system is the best balance but that really needs to be tested.
There has been a petition set up by some crew out of Europe to call for review.

Have a look and sign it if you reckon its worth a review.
www.thepetitionsite.com/775/158/092/to-stop-world-sailing-using-the-scoring-system-in-iq-foiling-racing-and-use-a-fair-system/

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WallyWally said..

mr love said..
Awesome effort Grae, congratulations.

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

Super well done to Grae - it was an awesome campaign to a great position on the biggest stage. Plenty to look forward to in LA.

But the medal race format needs to be reviewed.
To not reflect the quantum of domination of the rest of the regatta is odd and the single race does not at all account for the number of variables faced when racing.

Anyway there is lots of angst in the system and calls for change.

There are plenty of other options - make it a 3 race final with no drops, adopt the kite system, move to the sailing medal system or something else
Surely the IQ Class and World Sailing needs to undertake a review to ensure that the athletes are put first and that the medal race format delivers the best sailor over the entire regatta winning the medal.

Maybe the current system is the best balance but that really needs to be tested.
There has been a petition set up by some crew out of Europe to call for review.

Have a look and sign it if you reckon its worth a review.
www.thepetitionsite.com/775/158/092/to-stop-world-sailing-using-the-scoring-system-in-iq-foiling-racing-and-use-a-fair-system/

I don't think this will change any time soon.

Windsurfing was on the CHOPPING BLOCK! It was close to being completely kicked out and replaced with kites. That might even still happen one Games in the future. There was a serious need to change the format in to something exciting (something "radical"). World Sailing didn't shove this down our throats; Top sailors, Olympians, national associations, coaches etc all came together and developed and discussed this scoring system and voted on it and it was adopted.

It's been used for the last 3 years of major events (Worlds etc) and there hasn't really been a big push to change it in that timeframe?

The previous Worlds in The Hague in both Mens and Womens, the leader of the opening series, also won the Medal Series final.

You can of course argue that it was absolutely BRUTAL in the womens' final in Paris but on the flip side, this system allowed Luuc (the World Champion leading in to the Olympics) to come back from an underwhelming opening series and work his way up to the final and push for a medal... to me that's quite a successful system! It's a double edged sword that way.

My hot take on this would be to keep the system as is. But absolutely ZERO need to appy it at regional events and Worlds where there is +100 peope in fleets. It should only be used at the Olympics. And maybe the "opening" series should be shortened so it doesn't seem like such a waste to race all week to throw those results away?

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Chris 249 said..

mr love said..
Awesome effort Grae, congratulations.

Re..the format....its exciting, no different to so many other sports where it all comes down to the grandfinal...

Yes, but in what sports does an unpredictable element have such an effect? The running track doesn't just change randomly in the middle of the race, for example. There's a very good reason why the whole sport of sailing moved away from events where just one short race decided the whole thing.

Surely if the final was a true test then it would closely mirror the results of the other races, but it doesn't seem to do so. One could say one may as well just have one race for the whole Olympics, or maybe just two or three.

Another point is that if people want viewers then why only keep them watching for one race? What's wrong with even a best of two, with the last race a tiebreaker if required?

Which other event - the 200m men's track. Noah Lyles dominating every race for three years, comes in bronze.

In the real world Noah was affected by his environment. He got Covid - if he and his support team wanted to make sure he didn't get covid, then he would have been isolating from everyone.

By your reasoning, the IOC should have just given him the Gold medal. Or at least waited until he had recovered, then re-run the race.