When Did Boat Racing First Take Place At The Olympic Games?

Sailing is one of the greatest sports in the world because it combines the expertise of highly skilled boat builders with extreme athleticism and a high level of technical skill and insight.

Outside of the track and field events, sailing or yachting has been a part of every single Olympic Games event, with two notable exceptions, which befits not only the immense skill and challenge of the sport but also the initial mission of the Olympics itself.

Sailing was meant to take place at the very first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, with both these events and rowing being cancelled due to poor weather and a lack of dedicated boats for the events.

They more than made up for this in Paris in 1900; 150 competitors and 64 boats competed in a full slate of races that coincided with the 1900 Exposition Universelle. In the early era of the Olympic Games, many events coincided with the World’s Fair of that year.

The smaller boats would race on the Seine near the town of Meulan, but this proved to be less than ideal due to a lack of wind, much of it blocked by the trees on the banks of the river.

By contrast, the port of Le Havre was used for the larger boats and was so good that the entire 22 nautical mile course was navigated by the 10 - 20 Ton class, which led to the decision to award winners being decided by an unusual aggregate system.

One of the most interesting aspects of the entire sailing event, besides its retrospective confusion, is that the 1 - 2 Ton race was the first time a female athlete won a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

The American-born Swiss yachtswoman Helene de Pourtales competed with her husband Hermann and his nephew Bernard, and the three won the first of two races in their class, breaking ground months before Charlotte Cooper won double Olympic gold in singles and doubles tennis.