Windsurfer (iQFOiL), Men

For 2024, the iQFoil replaced the Neil Pryde RS:X board, which had been in use since the 2008 Olympics. The iQFoil was first used at the 2021 World Championships, when France’s Nicolas Goyard, brother of the 2020 Olympic silver medalist Thomas Goyard, was the inaugural champion. The 2024 Olympic Regatta consisted of up to 18 first-round races involving 24 entrants from 24 countries. The leader after round one progressed directly to the final race, while the second and third placed by-passing the quarter-final to go straight into the semi-final. Due to the poor wind conditions, races 14-18 were cancelled and the competition lasted just five days instead of six.

Starting as favorites for the men’s competition were the three medalists from the iQFoil World Championships, held at Lanzarote a few months before the Paris Games: Nicolò Renna (ITA), Paweł Tarnowski (POL), and Luuc van Opzeeland (NED). Van Opzeeland had won a medal at each of the four iQFoil World Championships, with bronze in 2021 and 2024, silver in 2022, and gold in 2023. Renna’s gold in 2024 was on top of a win the previous year. He was also the silver medalist at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics. Germany’s Sebastian Kördel, the 2022 World champion and runner-up in 2023, was also considered to be a medal contender, as was Israel’s Tom Reuveny, the 2019 and 2020 RS:X World champion.

Goyard and Renna set the early pace by occupying the first two places in race one and, after winning race four, van Opzeeland moved into second place overall. When the wind picked up, so did the form of the Dutchman, who went into the lead after the next race, with some of the pre-race favorites hot in his heels. He held the lead until race eight, when Reuveny replaced him.

After a slow start, Australia’s Grae Morris, who was fourth at an Olympic test event in Marseille, slowly moved up through the field until taking the overall lead after race nine. The event was wide open at that stage and, going into the 12th, and last, of the first-round races, Morris led New Zealander Josh Armit and Tarnowski by three points. Morris held on to go straight through to the final, however, with the second and third placed men Reuveny and Tarnowski by-passing the quarters and going straight into the semi-finals. Two of the potential medal-winners to miss out on a place in the quarter-finals were Kördel (12th) and world ranked No.1 Goyard (15th).

Due to a lack of wind, the quarters, semis, and final, which had been scheduled for 2 August, were all put back a day. Eventually, the two qualifiers from the quarters, who joined Reuveny and Tarnowski in the semis were van Opzeeland, who led from the start, and Britain’s Sam Sills, who had finished seventh in the first round. It was van Opzeeland and Reuveny, however, who went through to the three-man final with Morris.

The final was really a two-man race with Reuveny and Morris alternating the lead, with Morris leading at Marks 1 and 3 before Reuveny took the lead to win gold. It was Israel’s second windsurfing gold, after Gal Fridman in 2004. For Morris, he won Australia’s second windsurfing medal, after Lars Kleppich at Barcelona 1992.