Multihull (Nacra 17), Mixed

The mixed Nacra 17 multihull class was being sailed for the second time at the Olympic Games, after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. That event was won by Argentina’s Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza. World Championships had been held in this class since 2013, with the first four won by the French pair of Billy Besson and Marie Riou. They had competed at Rio, placing sixth, but were not back for Tokyo. Since 2016, four different crews had been World Champions, although it was two crews each from Great Britain and Italy.

Italy, with a crew of Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, who had won the 2018 Worlds, and Great Britain, represented by John Gimson and Anna Burnet, the 2020 World Champions, quickly showed they were the class of the event, winning five of the first six races. The other had been won by Germans Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer.

From race four through the medal race, the standings would be Italy, Great Britain, Germany, in that order. The race for the medals was all but over and, although all three boats finished in the bottom half of the medal race, that was how the medals were distributed. Lange and Carranza never contended for medals, although they did win the medal race to finish seventh overall.

Caterina Banti was a first-time Olympian while her crewmate, Ruggero Tita, had sailed at Rio but in the men’s 49er class. Gimson and Burnet were likewise Olympic debutantes as was Stuhlemmer, although her partner, Paul Kohlhoff, had sailed the Nacra 17 in 2016 but with a different crewmate.