Written by Remi Villa (from his Facebook):
I had fun with all of them except the last one!The history of Olympic windsurfing22 February 2017 | Windsurfing
Stephan van den Berg: the first Olympic windsurfing gold medalist | Photo: ANP
In 1984, windsurfing became the youngest sport ever to be included in the Olympic Games. Since then, sailboarding has always been part of the Olympic sailing competition.
The young sailing class made its debut at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics with a men's only regatta.The first ever Olympic sailboard was the Windglider, the one-design windsurf board manufactured in Europe by Fred Ostermann.The Windglider used a 6.5 m2 sail, and the class rules didn't allow harnesses. The daggerboard weighed around four kilograms and was carried over shoulder during the downwind legs.Windglider: the Olympic windsurfing class for Los Angeles 1984Windsurfing's first Olympic regatta was a highly tactical, nine nautical mile course challenge won by Stephan van den Berg, from the Netherlands. It was a race for the fittest.Four years late, in the Seoul 1988 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose the Lechner Division II, a windsurfing class with 6.7 m2 sails, round-bottomed 13-foot boards, and excellent upwind performances in light wind conditions.Lechner Division II: the Olympic windsurfing class for Seoul 1988The IOC had two options: the Lechner Division II, made in Austria, and the Davidson, made in Sweden. The reason for the choice was a mystery to most, but it was hinted that North Sails influenced the final decision.The organization chose Pusan as the sailing venue. But the spot was so windy that there was a lot of equipment damage and rescues for many classes, resulting in many DNFs and protests.Bruce Kendall, who had previously won bronze in Los Angeles, managed to win the gold medal in South Korea.For the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, the organizers kept the Lechner class, but modified it by bringing the centerboard and mast track further back, and adding a larger, camber-induced 7.3 m2 sail produced by NeilPryde.Lechner: the Olympic windsurfing class for Barcelona 1992Despite the polluted waters and equipment failures, windsurfing presented its first female Olympic medalists. Barbara Kendall, Bruce's sister, won gold. In the men's competition was taken out by French sailor Franck David.Between 1996 and 2004, the IOC opted for the Mistral One Design (MOD) class, and the decision gave Olympic windsurfing a huge boost as a universal sport.Mistral One Design: the Olympic windsurfing class for Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004However, in 1997, Mistral decided to modify the Olympic equipment to make it more durable and shifted the production back to Europe. But the supply of Olympic gear didn't meet demand, and the athletes requested a drastic change.The RS:X Class, developed by NeilPryde, features a 9.5 m2 sail (8.5 m2 sail for female sailors) and delivers a compromise between traditional raceboards, and Formula Windsurfing boards.The RS:X sailboard equipment featured in Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016.RS:X: the Olympic windsurfing class for Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016Windsurfing in the Olympic Games | List of MedalistsLos Angeles 1984 (Windglider)Men
Gold: Stephan van den Berg (NED)
Silver: Scott Steele (USA)
Bronze: Bruce Kendall (NZL)Seoul 1988 (Lechner Division II)Men
Gold: Bruce Kendall (NZL)
Silver: Jan Boersma (AHO)
Bronze: Mike Gebhardt (USA)Barcelona 1992 (Lechner)Men
Gold: Franck David (FRA)
Silver: Mike Gebhardt (USA)
Bronze: Lars Kleppich (AUS)Women
Gold: Barbara Kendall (NZL)
Silver: Zhang Xiaodong (CHN)
Bronze: Dorien de Vries (NED)Atlanta 1996 (Mistral One Design)Men
Gold: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis (GRE)
Silver: Carlos Espinola (ARG)
Bronze: Gal Fridman (ISR)Women
Gold: Lee Lai Shan (HKG)
Silver: Barbara Kendall (NZL)
Bronze: Alessandra Sensini (ITA)Sydney 2000 (Mistral One Design)Men
Gold: Christoph Sieber (AUT)
Silver: Carlos Espinola (ARG)
Bronze: Aaron McIntosh (NZL)Women
Gold: Alessandra Sensini (ITA)
Silver: Amelie Lux (GER)
Bronze: Barbara Kendall (NZL)Athens 2004 (Mistral One Design)Men
Gold: Gal Fridman (ISR)
Silver: Nikolaos Kaklamanakis (GRE)
Bronze: Nick Dempsey (GBR)Women
Gold: Faustine Merret (FRA)
Silver: Yin Jian (CHN)
Bronze: Alessandra Sensini (ITA)Beijing 2008 (RS:X)Men
Gold: Tom Ashley (NZL)
Silver: Julien Bontemps (FRA)
Bronze: Shahar Tzuberi (ISR)Women
Gold: Yin Jian (CHN)
Silver: Alessandra Sensini (ITA)
Bronze: Bryony Shaw (GBR)London 2012 (RS:X)Men
Gold: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED)
Silver: Nick Dempsey (GBR)
Bronze: Przemyslaw Miarczynski (POL)Women
Gold: Marina Alabau (ESP)
Silver: Tuuli Pet?j? (FIN)
Bronze: Zofia Klepacka (POL)Rio 2016 (RS:X)Men
Gold: Dorian van Rijsselberghe (NED)
Silver: Nick Dempsey (GBR)
Bronze: Pierre Le Coq (FRA)Women
Gold: Charline Picon (FRA)
Silver: Chen Peina (CHN)
Bronze: Stefania Elfutina (RUS)
Didn't Bruce Wylie get a bronze in the demonstration event? I vaguely recall reading something about it in the paper but it was a long time ago.
Select to expand quoteSeanAUS120 said..
Should teach you French something about using paragraphs...
Teach Laurie how to fix the copy and past from another website to this forum 
I would love to see a correlation of the winners of the World Championships in the year of the Olympics; interesting to see if World Titles translate to Olympic Medals in the same year or the medalists taper for the Olympics and sacrifice the Worlds... I'll have to check but I think Lars Kleppich won the worlds in 2000 leading in to his Bronze in Sydney 2000? I don't think Dorian had particularly good Worlds results before his 2x Golds in London + Rio?
I think Lars won in 1999 but didnt win the worlds just before the 2000 games. pretty sure.
lars won 7 regattas in a row in both hemisperes - pretty rare
lars had his first baby before the 2000 Sydney games.
dunno what that means but for me I never sailed as well post kids even though im much older and wiser now
Lars Kleppich won the 1999 World Mistral One Design Championships held in Noumea, New Caledonia. He did win an Olympic bronze medal at the 1992 games in Barcelona, Spain. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics Lars finished 4th, whilst at the 2004 Olympics held in Greece he finished 8th. He has been by far Australia's best men's representative in Olympics windsurfing.
Select to expand quoteCluffy said..
Didn't Bruce Wylie get a bronze in the demonstration event? I vaguely recall reading something about it in the paper but it was a long time ago.
Bruce Wylie won the Gold medal in the demonstration event of Windsurfing at LA in 1984. That was on the Windsurfer One Design which I believe should have been used for the Olympics proper instead of the Windglider. Australia was also represented by Greg Hyde, Sarah Kenny and a teen-aged Jessica Crisp who went on to competing at her fourth Olympics in London. Jessica Crisp is still a top sailor today having competed at the Aloha Wave Classic at Hookipa in 2016.
Read more at www.mysailing.com.au/olympics/los-angeles-1984-australia-s-first-tornado-medal#gfW2VTMrJARts8CO.99
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
Because Aust sailing hates windsurfing after formula windsurf didn't get selected as the Olympic board
Select to expand quoteWing 11 said..
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
The current RS:X has been approved for the 2020 Olympics so you will see them in Japan.The RS:X convertible (foiling) will be proposed for the 2024 Olympics and that should be decided around 2019 or later.PWA sailors don't sail RS:X for 2 reasons:- It is a one design and can be raced in 6 knts of wind so even a sailors like Antoine Albeau wouldn't have much chance to perform with his 100kg and "only" 9.5m compared to someone around 70kg.
- They are professional and under contract by manufacturer brand and as said previously, the RS:X is only fproduced by Neilpryde (eg, I don't think Severne, Point 7 or Gaastra would like to see their sailors using Neilpryde on official racing).
And why is it so underappreciated, my personal opinion would put that on the ISAF (world sailing now) and RS:X class management (choice of gear and courses).
Select to expand quotewindsufering said..
According to IWC that list is incorrect
Gee some people have good memories. I was wrong 5 years ago. I said it then and will say it again if that helps you get over it. I guess it will be a burden I will have to bear for the rest of my life. Not sure how I am going to live with my self oh well I have big shoulders
On a serious note we have great female windsurf champions in this country of which Jessica Crisp and Alison Shreeve are a couple. IWC has been lucky enough to get both to come down from NSW and instruct our female club members over the years. It was through spending time with Jess that I found out that she was the first Australian windsurfer male or female to achieve a PWA win. Damn impressive.
Great bit of history to view the list
How many ex olympic windsurfers, besides Jessica Crisp, went on to a successful career in PWA?
Stefan Van Den Berg won in LA (I think) and went onto be a successful World Cup racer in the 1980s. Not too many others spring to mind.
The Olympic racers are incredibly good athletes and have vast skills, but aren't they generally a fair bit smaller than your average PWA racer? Can you be 70kgs and keep up with A2 on slalom gear?
Select to expand quoteAUS1111 said..
Stefan Van Den Berg won in LA (I think) and went onto be a successful World Cup racer in the 1980s. Not too many others spring to mind.
The Olympic racers are incredibly good athletes and have vast skills, but aren't they generally a fair bit smaller than your average PWA racer? Can you be 70kgs and keep up with A2 on slalom gear?
Who can keep up with A2 on slalom gear anyway?
Seriously those PWA racers are the size of gorillas. Stand them on a Mistral One Design and they'd sink up to their waist 
Lars is back being an accountant in the windsurf industry. Well, that's his day job he says
Select to expand quoteAUS1111 said..
Stefan Van Den Berg won in LA (I think) and went onto be a successful World Cup racer in the 1980s. Not too many others spring to mind.
The Olympic racers are incredibly good athletes and have vast skills, but aren't they generally a fair bit smaller than your average PWA racer? Can you be 70kgs and keep up with A2 on slalom gear?
Yes, that makes sense. But there was a recent thread on SB I think about a current PWA racer who is just over the 70kg mark. It was interesting in that he is somewhat competitive in slalom. ??
Ultimately, the record shows that bigger people have quite an advantage, especially when the wind minimums are reasonably high, and the legs between buoys long.
Select to expand quoteWing 11 said..
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
The PWA guys are not necessarily the best windsurfers, if that it what you are implying; the meaning of your sentence is unclear.
A while ago I looked at what happened to PWA sailors who tried the RSX and when RSX sailors tried FW. In general, the RSXers did better moving to FW than vice versa but there are obviously many factors involved. Another thing that was obvious was that there were more people regularly racing in the "RSX stream" (RSX and Techno) than in the "WC stream" (FW and slalom). The budgets of the Olympic teams are also often pretty big, so there may be more money spent on training Olympians than on training WC sailors.
I'm NOT saying that the WC guys are inferior sailors, but what was clear was that there was no evidence at all that they were better than the RSXers. Interestingly, a lot of WC fans on forums were assuming that WC sailors were better but not one of them ever presented any evidence or analysis; it just seemed that they thought WC sailors were better because they were in more ads and stories.
Select to expand quotesailquik said..
How many ex olympic windsurfers, besides Jessica Crisp, went on to a successful career in PWA?
Anders Bringdal made his name in One Designs and Olympic class racing, being the top ranked sailor in D2s but (IIRC) losing his national selection before he went into PWA racing, where he won the slalom worlds and the course racing worlds.
Out of the Australian PWA sailors, Jess, Bruce, Phil and Tom were all ex One Designers and all of them (with the possible exception of Bruce) did some fairly serious time in D2 boards around the time the Lechner was selected.
Well, yes. back in the earlier days, everyone, myself included 
came from Longboard racing.
I was more interested in the cross over of actual Olympic medalists, especially more recently.
Virtually not one it seems. The physical and skills set requirements are so different. Also, the development pathways.
Lee El Korzits is the closest i can think of. Multiple world champion and olympist. Not sure about her results on PWA though
Select to expand quotejusavina said..Wing 11 said..
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
The current RS:X has been approved for the 2020 Olympics so you will see them in Japan.The RS:X convertible (foiling) will be proposed for the 2024 Olympics and that should be decided around 2019 or later.PWA sailors don't sail RS:X for 2 reasons:- It is a one design and can be raced in 6 knts of wind so even a sailors like Antoine Albeau wouldn't have much chance to perform with his 100kg and "only" 9.5m compared to someone around 70kg.
- They are professional and under contract by manufacturer brand and as said previously, the RS:X is only fproduced by Neilpryde (eg, I don't think Severne, Point 7 or Gaastra would like to see their sailors using Neilpryde on official racing).
And why is it so underappreciated, my personal opinion would put that on the ISAF (world sailing now) and RS:X class management (choice of gear and courses).
I don`t get it .. aren`t Rsx`s around 230 something liters .. so if AA sailed it he should be okay in most of the wind ranges unless there was a slalom board even past 160ltrs
Select to expand quotejp747 said..jusavina said..Wing 11 said..
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
The current RS:X has been approved for the 2020 Olympics so you will see them in Japan.The RS:X convertible (foiling) will be proposed for the 2024 Olympics and that should be decided around 2019 or later.PWA sailors don't sail RS:X for 2 reasons:- It is a one design and can be raced in 6 knts of wind so even a sailors like Antoine Albeau wouldn't have much chance to perform with his 100kg and "only" 9.5m compared to someone around 70kg.
- They are professional and under contract by manufacturer brand and as said previously, the RS:X is only fproduced by Neilpryde (eg, I don't think Severne, Point 7 or Gaastra would like to see their sailors using Neilpryde on official racing).
And why is it so underappreciated, my personal opinion would put that on the ISAF (world sailing now) and RS:X class management (choice of gear and courses).
I don`t get it .. aren`t Rsx`s around 230 something liters .. so if AA sailed it he should be okay in most of the wind ranges unless there was a slalom board even past 160ltrs
It is a big board but you can only use 9.5 (which is a "small" sail for AA in course racing) and mostly, it can be raced in 6 knts of wind in subplanning conditions and that is where AA's weight would handicap him too much comparing to a lighter guy.
Select to expand quoteWing 11 said..
Is it true that foil board will replace the current board(RSX) in olympic sailing?
And why best windsurfers(PWA) dont sail in olympic windsurfing,why this this branch of sport is so under
appreciated?
Because the RSX is a **** compromise of a board. Somewhere between a race board and formula, and does neither well. It would be like racing at Bathurst in a Mazda CX9.
