Windsurfer (Mistral), Men

The 1996 windsurfing class, for both men and women, was changed to the Mistral One Design Class, which was first designed in 1989. It was also used for the windsurfing event at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. The Mistrals raced on the Alpha course. There were nine races with each sailor having two discards.

The favorite was Greece’s Nikos Kaklamanakis, who was the 1996 World Champion, the 1994 European Champions, and had won the pre-Olympic regatta on the course. In the first eight races, he had four wins and one second, and did not need to start the ninth race to win the gold medal. He did start, but stopped and did not finish. Kaklamanakis later added a silver medal in windsurfing at the 2004 Olympics.

Argentine Carlos Espínola ended up quite close to Kaklamanakis on points when he placed second in the final race, but he could not beat him overall, despite having four second-place finishes and having to count nothing worse than a fourth-place in the second race. This was Espínola’s second Olympics, after finishing 24th in 1992. He repeated as silver medalist in windsurfing in 2000, and then switched to larger boats, winning bronze medals in the Tornado in both 2004 and 2008. His four medals gave him the most medals ever by an Argentine Olympian, although in 2012 it was equalled by female hockey (field) player Lucha Aymar. Espínola later became the mayor of his hometown of Corrientes in Argentina.