Two Person Dinghy (470), Mixed

The two-person monohull 470 dinghy was first introduced into the Olympics in 1976 and has been used ever since. At Paris 2024, however, it became the second mixed event after the Nacra 17 multihull. The 2024 Olympic Regatta consisted of up 10 preliminary races involving 38 entrants from 19 countries. The top 10 finishers then contested a medal race. Points were carried forward from the first series, where double points were awarded and added to the opening series scores to establish final positions. Due to a lack of wind, which plagued many sailing races in Marseille, two race days were lost. Races 9 and 10 were cancelled, and the medal race was postponed for 24 hours.

Stu McNay of the USA, who celebrated his 43rd birthday on the first day of the 470 event, was hoping to win his first Olympic medal in his fifth Games. His partner was Lara Dallman-Weiss, who finished 13th in the women’s two person dinghy event in 2020. McNay may not have been one of the medal favorites, but Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg, also competing in his fifth Olympics, was a serious contender. Partnering 2020 débutant Lovisa Karlsson, Dahlberg was hoping to improve on the silver medal he won in the men’s class at Tokyo. The pair were ranked No. 6 at the time of the Paris Games.

The No. 1 ranked pair were the Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, the reigning European and World 470 Champions, and runners-up in both the 2022 and 2023 Worlds. Xammar was a bronze medalist at Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 was his third Olympics, while his partner was competing in her first Games. Other medal contenders included the Japanese duo of Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka, ranked No. 2 and 2024 Word Championship bronze medalists. France’s chance of a medal rested on the shoulders of the No. 3 ranked pair, Camille Lecointre and Jérémie Mion. Lecointre won a women’s bronze medal at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, while the pair of them won bronze at the 2022 Worlds in Israel.

Japan won the opening race at Marseille, ahead of the Britons Vita Heathcote (the niece of double Olympic medalist Nick Rogers) and Chris Grube, the 2024 World Championship runners-up. The British pair fell away in the next race, however, with a 16th place, and ended up the opening series in 11th place, failing to make the medal race. The opening series was dominated by the Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and Austrian (Lara Vadlau and Lukas Mähr) crews, who were all looking like gold medal candidates.

At the end of the opening eight-race series, which saw the last two races delayed by a day because of the poor weather conditions, the Austrians Vadlau and Mähr eventually went into the medal race in first place, seven points ahead of Spain, who had been consistent throughout and never finished below sixth. Hot on their heels were the crews from Japan and Sweden, as any one of those four could win gold.

The medal race was also delayed by 24 hours due to a lack of wind but eventually took place in calm conditions, and was won by the French pair of Lecointre and Mion, who led from start to finish. Vadlau and Mähr were in 10th place at the first two marks but clawed their way back to seventh, which was good enough to take gold by three points from Okada and Yoshioka, with Dahlberg and Karlsson taking bronze. The Spanish pair finished two points adrift in fourth place, having paid the price of attacking the Austrian pair from the start in a move many felt was not necessary. Okada and Yoshioka won Japan’s only sailing medal of the Paris Olympics.

After a disappointing Rio 2016, Lara Vadlau had taken five years away from the sport to complete a medical degree, but returned after watching the Tokyo Olympics, and the 2014 and 2015 women’s 470 World Champion teamed up with Lukas Mähr. Considering that they were disqualified for crossing the start line early in the opening race at Marseille, it was a great outcome for the first Austrian sailing gold medal winners since Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher in the multihull open event in 2004.

The Austrians were ranked No. 8 in the world at the time of their triumph, and won the first of two sailing gold medals for Austria at the Paris Games, with kiteboarder Valentin Bontus winning the other the next day. Lara Vadlau had won the girls’ one-person dinghy title at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, while it was her partner Lukas Mähr’s first Olympic appearance and, apart from winning gold, he was also the Austrian Flagbearer at the Closing Ceremony.