Skiff (49er), Men

This was the third Olympics at which the 49er skiff class has been contested by men. The New Zealand crew of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were the defending gold medallists and they had also won silver at the 2012 London Olympics. They were the favorites, having won the World Championships in 2019-20, after also winning that title in 2013-16. Since Rio no other crew had been on the podium at Worlds more than one time.

Ireland and Spain won the first two races, with the Spanish crew of Diego Botín Sanz de Sautuola and Iago López leading after the second and third race. Burling and Tuke got off to a rough start, finishing 12th in race one, and then in the fifth race, while they were in the lead on the first leg, Burling missed his trapeze handle on a tack and fell overboard.

Spain led through the sixth race, but the British pair of Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell took the lead after race seven. New Zealand moved into second after the ninth and 10th stages, as through that point, 10 different teams had won races, but Burling and Tuke moved into the lead after the 11th race and maintained it entering the medal race, although they had only a narrow lead over Great Britain and Spain.

The medal race went to Fletcher-Scott and Bithell with Burling/Tuke in third, and the Spanish crew back in seventh. That decided the medals, in that order. For Burling/Tuke it was a third consecutive medal in the event but a disappointing upset for the favored Kiwi crew.

Fletcher-Scott and Bithell had both competed before at the Olympics, with Fletcher-Scott sailing alongside Alain Sign in the skiff at Rio, while Bithell had won a silver medal in the 470 class at the 2012 London Olympics. They had also won the 2017 World Championships in 49er and won a bronze medal at the 2019 Worlds.