Yesterday
That's what the president said
On June 10, we published an open letter to over 300 Finn Masters riders to World Sailing President Kim Andersen. Now the website of the All-Russian Union of Federal Service of Federal Service published the answer of Andersen in translation, as well as remarks of a member of the Council of WS Oleg Ilin. We decided to reprint these documents.
Dear class veterans Finn!
Thank you very much for your open letter, expressing your concern about the exclusion of the Finn class from the Olympic program. As always, your opinion and input is valuable.
I regret that I could not meet you at the Royal Danish Yacht Club, because at the same time I participated in the Dragon Class Golden Cup races held in Medemblik.
The procedure for electing “Numbers” (yacht classes) and “Equipment” of the Olympic program is described in Article 23 of the World Sailing Regulations. In November 2017, the WS Council, the main decision-making body of the Federation, voted, overwhelmingly, with Submissions (Proposals) to amend the articles of the Regulations, which describe the main provisions for electing program numbers for the 2024 Olympic Games.
The set of “Numbers” was approved in May 2018, including the “single mixed-use dinghy.” But in the period from May to November 2018, there were no recommendations on how to practically implement such a “Number” program, and many national federations expressed the opinion that the “Number” of the “single-person dinghy in the mixed discharge” program is not feasible, and choosing "Equipment" can not be implemented.
During the Annual Conference in November 2018 in Sarasota, none of the Committees, including the Finn class, received any suggestions on how to solve this problem.
The corresponding vote was not a vote on the inclusion or non-inclusion of the Finn class. It was conducted on the occasion of the change of the “Number” of the “single-player dinghy in the mixed discharge” program. We did not have a decision on this “Number” of the program, but we had a proposal to include the “Number” of the program “keel offshore (cruising) deuce in mixed discharge”, which met the selection criteria of the “Numbers” approved earlier in the review process. This is the explanation of the decision process.
It is fundamentally important that the entire sailing community recognizes the facts and procedures that led us to these decisions.
In the International Sailing Federation, decisions must pass through the appropriate Committees, which in turn come forward with proposals to the Council, the main body of the WS, which makes decisions, which are then approved by the Annual General Assembly. In this case, in the period from 2017 to November 2018, the vote was consistently held with the overwhelming majority of positive votes.
I have no doubt that many national federations have different views and preferences, but at the same time they recognize the importance of developing our sport, using its Olympic status and opportunities determined by the IOC Agenda 2020 program.
The "Numbers" program of the Olympic Games-2024 in Paris should:
– to reflect the diversity of our great sport – we mean kiteboarding, windsurfing, catamarans / multi-shell projectiles, dinghy (singles and two), Scythians and cruising yachts;
– to ensure universality in all rooms on all continents and nations;
– to increase the participation of women, ensuring gender equality of participants, “Numbers” of the program and medals;
– Demonstrate new program numbers, such as kites, mixed crews and cruising.
Our dilemma is that we have only ten medals and 350 participants to demonstrate sailing, but not changing anything, keeping the status quo, we, in fact, do nothing to develop our great sport.
As a sailing community, we recognized: in order to remain at the level of modern requirements, we must change our sport.
I am sure that the concerns expressed in your letter are problems known to the Committees, the WS Council, delegates to the General Assembly, and were accordingly seriously discussed.
For the sake of development, other sports brought sacrifices. For example, rowing abandoned program numbers for participants with light weight for the sake of achieving gender equality.
As president and member of the Directorate, I am limited to decisions of the Council and the Annual General Assembly.
Your participation in the regatta and the high standards of the Finn Masters Championship are proof of class strength.
Finn is a great class and will remain a great class!
respectfully
Kim Andersen
Necessary comments from the International Committee of the Presidium of the All-Russian Federation Council:
1. According to the IOC classification, in the Olympics, sports play medals in:
Disciplines – individual types of programs, such as fleet racing in an approved format;
Numbers (Events) – types of sailing yachts and shells, as well as conditions for the drawing of medals in this sport. For example: solo dinghy; multicase – catamaran in mixed discharge; windsurfing – men, etc;
Equipment (Equipment) is a specific material part on which medals are played in the “Rooms”, i.e. yacht / projectile classes (eg Laser-standard, 470, 49th FX, etc.).
2. As a member of the WS Council, I confirm that a specific vote on the Finn class was not held at any stage in 2017-2018. At first, a vote was dragged through the Council in favor of the “Program” number of the “lone sailing dinghy in mixed discharge”, and the Finn class was implied, but not named. At the next stage, in December 2018, the Directorate suddenly came up with a late proposal for the maintenance of the new “Number”, namely, the “keel cruising deuce in mixed discharge”. This “Number” in the voting received a majority of votes at both the WS Council and the General Assembly, and thus replaced the “single-boat dinghy”. Unfortunately, the Directorate was able to convince most of the Council members and delegates to the General Assembly of the need for such a replacement.
3. Revising decisions requires a re-vote so that less than 75% of the members of the WS Council vote in favor of the revision. But even if this happens, the Olympic program will not restore the Finn class, but the “Number” of the “single-player dinghy in the mixed category” program. Further, the Directorate would insist on holding an evaluation competition and there are no guarantees that such a competition would win the Finn class.
4. A significant number of national federations, including the VFPS, do not agree with the policy pursued over the past three years by the new Directorate of WS. However, until now, representatives of such federations have failed to reach a majority of votes in the Council.
In November 2020, a re-election General Assembly of World Sailing will be held, at which each federation has the right to make an assessment of the activities of the Directorate and make its own proposals.
Oleg Ilyin,
Chairman of the International Committee
WS Board Member
111 Yesterday # 9165
Chief Editor
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What do you think?