Issue date
Unless you have been living down a very deep dark hole, you have probably heard by now that sailing has been excluded from the 2020 Paralympics to be held in Tokyo. If you are a sailor with a disability, you probably felt like crawling down that deep dark hole when you heard the news. I know I did. I was gobsmacked – I didn’t see that coming, and I certainly didn’t expect to find out about it on Facebook!
The IPC news release included the statement “The Board’s final decision was not an easy one and, after much debate, we decided not to include two sports – football 7-a-side and sailing – from the Tokyo 2020 programme for the same reason. Both did not fulfil the IPC Handbook’s minimum criteria for worldwide reach.” Further on the press release also stated “The eight sports that were not approved at October’s meeting were asked to provide additional information to the IPC addressing issues identified in their applications. This information was reviewed and a further analysis provided to the IPC Governing Board ahead of this week’s meeting.” Read the full release here.
ISAF have announced their intention to challenge the IPC decision and are encouraging people to write letters of support – you can read their response here .
However, I think the most interesting reading on what went wrong has been written on Sail World. At the moment there are three articles that make for interesting reading. I recommend starting with the oldest one first, entitled "2020 Summer Paralympics - A Damming Critique Of Sailing's Submission" by Laura Hale, followed by "Paralympic Sailing 2020 - IFDS Responds To Leaked Document" then "A Critical Time For Olympic And Paralympic Sailing" written by Rob Kothe and the Sail World Team.
