Ex-Optimists shine in Athens

74% of the skippers of the medal winning boats at the 2004 Olympics were former Optimist sailors. And 80% of these had sailed in IODA World or continental championships.

This is more than double the percentage four years ago in Sydney. In the monohull dinghies all but three* of the skippers were ex-Optimist (two who started in the Cadet). This increase mostly reflects the increasing spread of the Optimist in the age group from which the medallists come. As older "pre-Optimist" sailors retire, their place is being taken by those who did have the opportunity to sail our little boat.

Statistics about the total number of Olympic boat-skippers have been harder to collect but it is known that at least 60% of them were ex-Optimists and almost 70% of these were former Optimist internationals.

The proportion is higher in the monohull dinghies, especially the double-handers, than in the Tornado or keelboats where the average age is notably more "pre-Optimist". Among these dinghies it is notable that while most Finn sailors did start in the Optimist relatively few had the chance to sail internationally before becoming too big for the boat! Ben Ainslie famously did, being 63kg at his final Worlds, but sailed anyway! In the Laser the percentage of ex-Optimists was reduced by the wild-card sailors, only one of whom had sailed Optimists.

Almost all the medallists were in their second or third Olympics. It is therefore promising that there were several young first-timers who achieved good results, most notably Shen Xiaoying (CHN), Victoria Kraviotis (GRE), Sven Coster (NED) and Nico Delle Karth (AUT), all of course former Optimist sailors.

For a different perspective - what happens to Optimist sailors when they graduate from the Class - see www.optiworld.org/lowdropout.pdf

* Apologies for the earlier error regarding Paul Foerster (USA)

Medallists
Key: Red Name Sailed in Optimist Worlds or Continentals
  Black Bold Sailed Optimists (other)
  X Did not sail Optimists
  ? No information yet
  Laser Finn Europe 470M 470W 49er Tornado Star Yngling Total
1 Scheidt Ainslie Sundby X Bekatorou Martinez X X X 15

20

 56%

74%
2 Geritzer Trujillo X Rogers Via Dufresne X Lovell MacDonald ?
3 Zbogar Kusznierewicz Livbjerg Seki Torgersson Draper Lange Rohart Jensen

All Skippers

Key: Red Name Sailed in Optimist Worlds or Continentals
  Black Bold Sailed Optimists (other)
  X Did not sail Optimists
  lower case No information yet
   Medallist
  Laser Finn Europe 470M 470W 49er Tornado Star Yngling Total
AUS X X X X X X X X X  
ESP L.Martinez D. Trujillo Garriga G. Martinez D. Via Dufresne I. Martinez X bermudez Azon
FRA Pruvot Florent Rouille Gildas Petitjean audineau backes Rohart Le Helley
GBR goodison Ainslie X Rogers X Draper McMillan Percy X
GRE Chimonas Papathanasiou Kravoriotis Kosmatopoulos Bekatorou Pacoumas Paschalidis Pelekanakis Giakoumidou
ITA Negri marchesini Nevierov Zandoná Saccheggiani Sibello marcolini Bruni Conti
USA Mendelblatt X Gaillard X mcdowell X Lovell X X
DEN Nyholm H-Christiansen Livbjerg Kjaergaard Ward X   Holm Jensen
GER   fellman Nieman Zellmer rothweiler Baur X X Wagner
BRA Scheidt Signorini   Paradeda Oliveira Fonseca Santa Cruz X  
NED   zielhuis Brouwer Coster Westerhof   X neeleman thies
RUS semerkhanov krutskikh ivanova X ilienko   kirilyuk   Skudina
ARG romero colla Amato Conte Sesto   Lange    
CAN Luttmer Clarke     provan   johansson MacDonald X
IRL Fitzpatrick X X Owens   Fitzpatrick   X  
NZL pepper Barker Macky Brown hesson       ferris
JPN X   Saito Seki Yoshiksako Nakamura      
POL Grabowski Kuznierewicz Bronicka Stanczyk   czajkowski      
SLO Zbogar vincec Cerne Copi Dekleva        
SWE Suneson     Molund Torgersson   Strandberg Lööf  
NOR Moberg   Sundby     Sundby     Eikeland
POR Lima   Pratas Marinho     cayolla    
UKR orlov     Braslavets   X     taran
SUI       erni   X   X  
AUT Geritzer         delle Karth X    
CRO Arapov Kuret   basic          
CZE trcka Maier X            
FIN Suomalainen   Multala     Johansson      
BEL Bergmans Godefroid Dezillie            
HUN   Hajdu   Czegai Weores        
TUR muslubas Adakan   Kakis          
BER               X X
CHN qiang shi   Shen Xiaoying            
ISR       Kliger kornecki        
KOR kim     X          
BLR     drozdovskaya            
CHI Del Solar                
EST   Taveter              
MAS Lim                
MEX     Elias Calles            
PUR             X    
RSA Blanckenberg                
SEY Julie                
SIN tan                
BRN X                
CYP papadopoulos                
IND           X      
ISL X                
ISV Pitts                
LTU guzys                
MLT X                
PER Nicolini                
URU Foglia                
  Laser Finn Europe 470M 470W 49er Tornado Star Yngling Total
W/C 36% 26% 36% 70% 60% 53% 18% 24% 25% 40%
ALL 60% 58% 76% 78% 60% 58% 35% 41% 50% 60%