Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.
A sailing hydrofoil, hydrofoil sailboat, or hydrosail is a sailboat with wing-like foils mounted under the hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils lift the hull up and out of the water, greatly reducing wetted area, resulting in decreased drag and increased speed. A sailing hydrofoil can achieve speeds exceeding double and in some cases triple the wind speed.
The Mistral One Design Class (MOD) is a one-design windsurfing class chosen by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) for use at the Olympic regatta in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. Starting with the 2008 Summer Olympics it was replaced by the RS:X class, which will be replaced by the iQFoil class for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
RS:X is a windsurfing class selected by the ISAF to replace the Mistral One Design Class for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The discipline has similarities to Formula Windsurfing - mainly in that the equipment used was designed to allow windsurfing in low and moderate wind conditions with good performance.
Windsurfing has been one of the Olympic sailing events at the Summer Olympics since 1984 for men and 1992 for women. All sailors use the same One Design boards, daggerboards, fins and sails. The equipment is chosen to allow racing in a wide range of sailing conditions, as during the Olympic Games events must take place as scheduled whether or not there is enough wind for planing.
Sailing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was held from 8–18 August at Marina da Gloria in Guanabara Bay. The sailing classes had two changes from the 2012 Summer Olympics events. There were 10 events.
Johannes Ahun is a former Estonian windsurfer, who specialized in Neil Pryde RS:X discipline. He is also a two-time Olympic sailor, and is currently ranked no. 45 in the world for his class by the International Sailing Federation. He quit professional sports career in 2015 and went to study sound engineering at University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy. From 2017 he's been a musician in Estonian folktronica band OOPUS.
Bruno De Wannemaeker is a Belgian sports administrator.
Charline Picon is a French windsurfer who specialized in the Neil Pryde RS:X class. She captured two bronze medals in her respective class at the Windsurfing World Championships, and an Olympic title at the 2016 Summer Olympics after attaining a top ten finish at the 2012 Summer Olympics. As of September 2014, Picon is ranked as one of the top ten sailors in the world for the sailboard class by the International Sailing Federation, following her successes at the European and World Championships and at the Sailing World Cup series.
Paweł Aleksander Maria Tarnowski is a Polish sailor, son of Jacek Tarnowski, and Monika Wanicka. Tarnowski already competed at the top-level when he was a teenager, becoming a multiple medal winner in Junior World Championships. In 2011 and 2012, he won a gold medal at the RS:X Junior World Championships, and he won medals in European Champion. In first he started in classes Techno 293 Class and at present RS:X, (including in a category age under 17 and under 21 years of age.
He is sometimes seen as a model in commercials, including polish company Atlas or on the cover of album Superheroes : Chapter One - Courage of the band Synthphonia.
Saskia Sills is a world champion British windsurfer and member of the British Sailing Team. She has continued to compete in international events such as the European championships, and has been part of the British Sailing team from 2013 to present as a windsurfer initially in the RS:X (Women) Class, and more recently in the IQFoil class.
Windfoiling is a surface water sport that is the hydrofoiling evolution of windsurfing, as well as typical sailing boats and sailing hydrofoils. It uses similar equipment to windsurfing with a normal or slightly evolved rig on a normal or specialist foil board.
Aleksandra Blinnikka is a Finnish windsurfer. She started her international competition career in 2013 in Raceboard Class. Since then she has competed in Raceboard and RS:X Olympic Class events. 2020 she changed the discipline to the new IQFOIL Olympic class as it was chosen to be the new windsurfing olympic class in the next summer olympics 2024. She has twice won the Raceboard Worlds and the European Championships.
Emma Wilson is a British windsurfer who won a bronze medal in the RS:X event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won the RS:X events at the Youth Sailing World Championships in 2016 and 2017, and won medals at the 2018 and 2019 RS:X European Championships, and the 2022 and 2023 IQFoil European Championships.
Barrie Edginton is a British windsurfer. He competed in the men's Lechner A-390 event at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the iQFOIL Executive Committee.
Kiran Badloe is a Dutch windsurfer. He won the gold medal in the men's event at the 2019 RS:X World Championships and 2020 RS:X World Championships.
Finn Hawkins is a British windsurfer. He won a bronze medal at the 2018 World U21 Sailing Championships in Liepāja and a bronze medal, and Team GB's first, at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Hawkins placed 26th overall in the 2020 iQFoil European Championships in Silvaplana, Switzerland, and first within the youth section. He also won the U19 section of the 2020 iQFoil International Games at Lake Garda in Italy. Hawkins won Men's U21 gold in the inaugural IQFoil World Championships in Silvaplana.
Formula Kite is the kitesurfing class chosen by World Sailing for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The class features a foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil. The equipment is not one-design, but instead competitors use their choice of approved production equipment. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) manages the class. The class is for men and women.
Sailing competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics are scheduled to run from 28 July to 8 August at Marseille Marina. The number of sailors competing across ten different classes at these Games has been reduced from 350 to 330, with an equal distribution between men and women. Furthermore, several significant changes are instituted in the sailing program for Paris 2024 to reinforce gender equality and vast diversity among the nations in the qualifying process.
Hélène Noesmoen is a French windsurfer who competes in the IQFoil class. She won the women's events at the 2021 IQFoil World Championships and the 2020, 2021 and 2022 IQFoil European Championships. Noesmoen also won the RS:X event at the 2018 Sailing World Cup event in Miami, and multiple junior world championships.
