Multihull (Nacra 17), Mixed

The Nacra 17 class introduced another first in Olympic sailing. It not only marked the return of catamarans and mixed events after a break in 2012, but was also the first time that the crew had to consist of one woman and one man. Previous mixed events just opened the entry list for both sexes with the men outnumbering the women by far. In this new class, the hero of the day was Argentinian Santiago Lange, a six times Olympian and bronze medal winner in the discontinued Tornado class in 2004 and 2008. Not only was he 54 years old when he became the oldest medal winner in Rio, but one year earlier he was diagnosed lung cancer and had his left lung removed. Lange, who is also a member of the Sweden-based 2017 America’s Cup crew, teamed up with 27-year-old Cecilia Carranza. Lange’s sons Yago and Klaus represented Argentina in the 49er class.

Even though Carranza and Lange were in the lead by five points after the preliminaries, ahead of Italy’s Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri and another two points ahead of Austria’s Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank the medal positions were still in doubt. Two more boats were also in reach of a medal: Australia with Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin and New Zealand with Jason Saunders and Gemma Jones. A penalty at the start put the Argentinian boat to the back of the field, but they recovered and advanced to sixth place at the finish line outperforming their Italian rivals by one place, and by just seven seconds, which proved to be decisive. Eventually, the medal hopefuls Italy dropped to fifth place overall. The other three leading catamarans from Austria, Australia and New Zealand occupied the top three positions in the medal race. But with New Zealand coming in first, Australia in second and Austria in third, they all came close but none close enough. Argentina survived with 77 points holding on to a lead of just one point ahead of Australia and Austria, both with 78 points. Australia was awarded silver and Austria bronze based on finishing positions in the medal race. The three medal winners were separated by one point and the first five teams by seven, the tightest final score of the 2016 sailing events only matched by the women’s windsurfing.