Multihull (Nacra 17), Mixed

The Nacra 17 was the vessel chosen for the mixed multihull event at Paris 2024, after it had been the Olympic’s first mixed sailing event at the 2016 Rio Games. At Tokyo, four years later, it was converted into a hydrofoil vessel. The 2024 Olympic Regatta consisted of 12 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, when 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, the medal race was postponed for 24 hours.

The British No. 1 ranked pair of John Gimson and Anna Burnet were certainly amongst the favorites for a medal. Their world ranking was backed up with World titles in 2020 and 2021, as well as a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, where they were beaten by their regular training partners Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy who, despite only being ranked No. 3 at Marseille, were the clear favorites for gold.

The Italians, who had raced together since 2016, were aiming to retain their Olympic title and to add to their collection of four World titles in 2018 and 2022-24, while New Zealand’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medalists Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson were likely medal contenders. Other potential medalists included the 2022 World championship bronze medalists, and No. 4 ranked pair, Sinem Kurtbay and Akseli Keskinen from Finland, while another Nordic country, Sweden, had potential medalists in Emil Järudd and Hanna Jonsson, 10th at Tokyo, and the 2023 World Championship bronze medalists.

Once the racing started, Tita and Banti built up a massive lead by winning six of the first seven races, and eventually won the opening series by 14 points from the No. 8 ranked Argentine pair of Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco. Apart from being disqualified in race 10 for an early start, the Italian pair’s lowest finish was sixth. The top 10 finishers from the opening series went through to the medal race, with Wilkinson and Dawson qualifying in third place, and the British pair of Gimson and Burnet in fourth place, level on points with the New Zealanders.

The final race was delayed by 24 hours due to a lack of wind. Even though medal race points counted double, Tita and Banti were so far ahead after the first 12 races they were guaranteed a silver medal, while the other two medals could only come from either Argentina, New Zealand or Great Britain. The final series was dominated by the young French pair of Tim Mourniac and Lou Berthomieu, who led from start to finish to win the final, and their 74 points put them in fifth place overall. Tita and Bantu made sure they stayed with the French duo and were second behind them all the way, to make sure their gold medal was safe. Majdalani and Bosco finished down the field in seventh place but managed to hold on to their silver, while Wilkinson and Dawson secured the bronze medal after finishing eighth in the medal race. They won the first multihull medal for New Zealand since Rex Sellers and Chris Timms won the Tornado class silver at Seoul in 1988. The Britons Grimson and Burnet were disqualified when they crossed the start line before the starting horn had sounded, and were awarded a maximum 22 points, which put them just outside the medals in fourth place.

Tita and Bantu became the first Italians to win two Olympic sailing gold medals. A few months after the Olympics, Tita was one of the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s America’s Cup crew that lost to Great Britain’s INEO Britannia in the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup to decide who challenged for the America’s Cup in Barcelona. Also, shortly after the Paris Games, the disappointment of missing out on a medal by the Britons Grimson and Burnet was soon forgotten as they strengthened their partnership by getting married.