Sailing at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Dates 29 July – 11 August 2012
Medal Events 10

Sailing was contested on the southern coast of England at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The event was marred slightly by a few days of very calm winds that forced postponement of several races. As is common now the sailing program was changed slightly since 2008. First of all, there were no longer mixed events, but only separate events for either men or women. Men contested six classes and women four, with both racing windsurfers, but in another new-style boat, the RS:X. The Tornado catamaran class was dropped from the program. The Yngling class was also dropped, replaced by a women’s match racing class in Elliott 6 metre boats. The highlight of 2012 sailing was likely Britain’s Ben Ainslie winning his fourth individual sailing gold medal in the Finn class.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Windsurfer (Neil Pryde RS:X), Men Olympic 31 July – 7 August 2012 38 38
One Person Dinghy (Laser), Men Olympic 30 July – 6 August 2012 49 49
Two Person Dinghy (470), Men Olympic 2 – 10 August 2012 54 27
Two Person Keelboat (Star), Men Olympic 29 July – 5 August 2012 32 16
Skiff (49er), Men Olympic 30 July – 8 August 2012 40 20
One Person Heavyweight Dinghy (Finn), Men Olympic 29 July – 5 August 2012 24 24
Windsurfer (Neil Pryde RS:X), Women Olympic 31 July – 7 August 2012 25 25
One Person Dinghy (Laser Radial), Women Olympic 30 July – 6 August 2012 41 41
Two Person Dinghy (470), Women Olympic 3 – 10 August 2012 40 20
Three Person Keelboat (Elliott 6m), Women Olympic 29 July – 11 August 2012 36 12
379 (237/142) 63 (59/48)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Windsurfer, Men Dorian van RijsselbergheNED Nick DempseyGBR Przemysław MiarczyńskiPOL
One Person Dinghy, Men Tom SlingsbyAUS Pavlos KontidesCYP Rasmus MyrgrenSWE
Two Person Dinghy, Men AustraliaAUS Great BritainGBR ArgentinaARG
Two Person Keelboat, Men SwedenSWE Great BritainGBR BrazilBRA
Skiff, Men AustraliaAUS New ZealandNZL DenmarkDEN
One Person Heavyweight Dinghy, Men Ben AinslieGBR Jonas Høgh ChristensenDEN Jonathan LobertFRA
Windsurfer, Women Marina AlabauESP Tuuli PetäjäFIN Zofia Noceti-KlepackaPOL
One Person Dinghy, Women Xu LijiaCHN Marit BouwmeesterNED Evi Van AckerBEL
Two Person Dinghy, Women New ZealandNZL Great BritainGBR NetherlandsNED
Three Person Keelboat, Women SpainESP AustraliaAUS FinlandFIN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Australia AUS 3 1 0 4
Spain ESP 2 0 0 2
Great Britain GBR 1 4 0 5
Netherlands NED 1 1 1 3
New Zealand NZL 1 1 0 2
Sweden SWE 1 0 1 2
People's Republic of China CHN 1 0 0 1
Denmark DEN 0 1 1 2
Finland FIN 0 1 1 2
Cyprus CYP 0 1 0 1
Poland POL 0 0 2 2
Argentina ARG 0 0 1 1
Belgium BEL 0 0 1 1
Brazil BRA 0 0 1 1
France FRA 0 0 1 1