Windsurfer (Mistral), Men

This was the third consecutive, and final, Olympics in which the windsurfers used the Mistral board. Greece’s Nikos Kaklamanakis had won the 1996 windsurfing gold medal and lit the flame at the Athina Opening Ceremony, and had won the Mistral World Championships in 1996, 2000 and 2003. He opened up by winning the first race and seemed to be on his way. Nobody dominated the class, however, and Brazilian Bimba (né Ricardo Santos) led going into the final race, with Bimba, Kaklamanakis, and Israeli Gal Fridman, the 2002 World Champion, still in the gold medal fight. Santos crumbled in race 11, finishing 17th and dropped off the podium completely. Nikos also struggled, finishing only 10th and the gold medal went to Fridman, who finished second in the final race. This was the first ever gold medal by any Israeli athlete at the Olympics, although Fridman had also won a bronze in this class at the 1996 Olympics.

Bronze went to Britain’s Nick Dempsey, who won race 11 to move up, winning three of the final five races to get on the podium. At the 2012 Olympics, he would add a silver medal in windsurfing, then in the RS:X class.