Three-Person Keelboat (Soling), Open

This event featured a completely new format for Olympic sailing. All the boats raced six fleet races, with the top six finishers advancing to the second round, which was raced as a round-robin of match races. The top four boats then advanced to the semi-finals, where single-elimination match racing determined the medalists.

In the round-robin, the Americans led with four wins and one loss, followed by Denmark, with three wins and two losses. Those two boats had also been 1-2 in the fleet racing. Germany and Great Britain were the other two crews moving on to the semi-finals. Chalk held in the semis as both the US and Denmark won their matches, 2-0. The favored Americans, however, lost two straight races in the final, as Denmark won the gold medal. Great Britain defeated Germany 2-1 in the bronze medal races.

Jesper Bank, the Danish skipper, had won a bronze medal in Soling in 1988 and would return in 2000 and add a second gold medal.