With the completion of the last day of sailing in London, the final results can be tallied up - and it certainly was bad for USA sailors this year. Great Britain led (as in 2008, 2004, and 2000) in total medals for the ten events, followed closely by Australia, which took the most gold. Team USA, which won two medals in sailing in both 2008 and 2004, not only failed to win a single medal this year - but ended up no higher than 7th in the final standings for any of the events (and was much lower in most). This in a year that the USA overall won the most medals total and the most gold. What happened to sailing?
Sports commentary is sort of like political commentary, dominated by pundits pushing their own or "collective wisdom" theories to explain things before, during, and after the fact - and I'm sure we'll be hearing explanations varying from geographical (Europeans sail better in their own waters) to cultural (sailing gets less media exposure and respect in the USA) to analysis of individual athletes (X was really off his game, Y far from her personal best) - and everything else. I don't have anything to add into that mix. My one issue is that I wish that somehow sailing got more attention in US media. Think of the next generation of young kids who are all excited about becoming gymnasts or playing the big team sports - I wonder if they even know there is sailing in the Olympics? (I bet they do in Great Britain.)
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Here in the UK there is considerable investment for sailing, both at grassroots level, as well as at the performance end.
We are blessed with lots of well run sailing schools, both inland and at the coastal areas, and the RYA, the principal body for sailing matters takes a keen interest in delivering training etc.
I agree completely. I watched a lot of the Olympics these past two weeks and neither saw nor heard a single bleep about sailing. Whether the US was doing well or not, I think some coverage of the sport would have been fair. Like you said, we need inspire our youth in all sport activities. I did see some fencing and badminton which in years past was missing. However, if asked I would say most Americans would probably think sailing was not an Olympic sport at all.
I was surprised to see that sailing only received online coverage without commentary in the US. As I watched online I had to look up answers to my questions about the sport that would have been explained by commentary. When the USA was trying to win back the America’s Cup It was all over the tv. Since then sailing is but an afterthought. It’s too bad because the kids who were at the sailing center were so excited having the time of their lives, no video games needed.