One Person Dinghy (Finn), Open

From 1900-1980 all Olympic sailing (yachting) events had been mixed. From 1984-2008 some of the events were mixed, but in 2012 all events would be fully segregated by gender, although the Nacra 17 multihull class at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 is scheduled to be a mixed event. The 2008 Finn class was considered a mixed event but there were 26 sailors, and no women. Eleven races were scheduled but light wind conditions caused one day, and two races, to be cancelled, and the medal race had to be re-started due to the light winds.

Ben Ainslie of Great Britain was the heavy favorite, having won this title in 2004, winning his fifth World title in Finn a few months earlier, and also winning his fifth Gold Cup title earlier in 2008. He took a big lead into the medal race, winning of the first eight races. He led the medal race in very light winds, when it was suspended and later re-started. That mattered little as Ainslie won the medal race anyway, giving him his second straight Olympic Finn title, and third consecutive Olympic gold medal, after winning the Laser in 2000. This made Ainslie the second Olympic sailor to win three consecutive gold medals, after Paul Elvstrøm of Denmark, who won four on one-person dinghy from 1948-60. In 2012, Ainslie would win his third consecutive Finn gold medal, and equal Elvstrøm’s mark with four straight Olympic golds, although in different classes.