Our Olympic and Paralympic sailing heritage 

Our Sporting Life - Sail for Gold - a celebration of our British Olympic and Paralympic sailing heritage

Throughout 2012 the RYA will be showcasing its exciting new exhibition called Our Sporting Life - Sail for Gold.

The exhibiton is a celebration of our British Olympic and Paralympic sailing heritage, consisting of photos and memorabilia through the ages, from pre-war through to our present day champions.

Past Olympic and Paralympic sailors including legend Rodney Pattisson,  Keith Musto, Andy Cassell and Alistair Currey have all very kindly shared with us some great items for the exhibition.

Come see for yourself

The exhibition has now been officially launched and has started it's tour of the country and can be viewed at the following locations:

Venue	Location	Date
RYA Scotland's Big Weekend	sportscotland National Centre, Inverclyde, Largs	25 - 26 February
RYA Volvo Dinghy show	Alexandra Palace, London	03 - 04 March
Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre	Waterloo, Liverpool	10 March -10 April
National Maritime Museum Cornwall	Falmouth, Cornwall	03 May - 24 June
Cowes Yacht Haven	Isle of Wight (over the weekend of the Round the Island Race)	29 June – 1 July
Weymouth Bayside Festival	Weymouth (during 2012 Games)	27 July - 12 August
Brightlingsea Sailing Club	Colchester	15 - 30 September

 

We hope you can join us at one of these venues and enjoy this journey through Olympic and Paralympic sailing history.

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Did you know?

• Sailing is one of the oldest sports on the Olympic programme. It was first contested at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games on the River Seine.
• Early on the sailing was dominated by bigger boats, sometimes with a crew of 10-12 sailors. From the 1950’s onwards the trend has been towards smaller and smaller one-design boats. Today’s boats reflect the latest developments in the sport.
• The first woman to win an Olympic Sailing medal was Frances Rivett-Cama from Great Britain, who won gold in London 1908.
• Great Britain was the most successful Sailing nation at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Games – winning four of the 11 gold medals.
• Women have always been allowed to take part in Olympic Games sailing competition, but events for women were only introduced at Seoul 1988.
• The sports name was changed from ‘Yachting’ to ‘Sailing’ at the Sydney 2000 Games.
• Windsurfing was introduced as a sailing event at the Los Angeles 1984 Games. Women competed on equal terms against the men until their own discipline was introduced in 1988.
• Sailing first appeared at the Paralympics as a demonstration sport at the 1996 Atlanta Games.  In 2000 it was included in the Paralympic Games Competition programme as a medal sport with events for the Sonar (three person keelboat) and the 2.4mR (single-person keelboat).