“We clearly like France!” USA skiffs win gold and silver as China and Italy top medal table

“We clearly like France!” USA skiffs win gold and silver as China and Italy top medal table

Final Day

Germany and Belgium win gold and silver
Sailors hail “Amazing” week with every weather test
A great day for America’s skiffs with 49er gold and FX silver

The final day of the 56th edition of French Olympic Week (Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères – Toulon Provence Méditerranée) saw Italy join China at the top of the medal table as they won a medal of every colour across the six Medal Races after China’s exploits on Friday.

You can find the French Press Release here.

After the four board finals on Friday, the top 10 boats from the remaining six Olympic fleets competed in their Medal Races on Saturday: 470, ILCA 6 & 7, Nacra 17, 49er, and FX.

Two (470 & ILCA 7) had been won the day before by dominant leaders, two (49er & ILCA 6), saw yellow bib leaders displaced in thrilling races, and two (FX & Nacra 17) saw the overnight leaders hang on – just.

With a stable onshore easterly breeze of around 10-12 knots and more waves than previous days, the Medal Races started on time at 11:00, with the wind dropping off slightly for the last races at 12:30.

The weather has been one of the stars of the week and many of this young fleet, with some beginning the first Olympic cycle, will never forget their first full Mistral on Wednesday.
“We had every possible set of weather conditions this week, with even a strong mistral, almost at the limit of what some fleets can race,” Ed Russo, SOF’s Event Commissioner, said. “We also had light airs and a lot of sun as we often do in Hyères! And for the two days of the Medal Races, the wind needed for everything to go smoothly, including today where the first fleets raced from 11:00 this morning.”

“You could feel and see the competitiveness of the athletes, from 56 nations, as the new four-year cycle until the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles begins. The general event organization, with the same team for the last four years is a very well-oiled, with impeccable management of the flow of arrivals and departures from the boat parking lots! With the creation of the Sailing Grand Slam, everyone worked on reducing the time of the administrative side, and the athletes appreciated this simplification. It was a very good SOF!”

Jean-Pierre Giran, Mayor of Hyères and Président Toulon Provence Méditerranée metropolitan region added:
“The 56th French Olympic Sailing Week was once again the scene of some exceptional racing in Hyères’ magnificent natural nautical “stadium” in our harbour defined by Les îles d’Or (The Golden Islands).”

“We had the perfect combination of weather conditions to decide the competition between some 729 competitors representing 56 countries. In each of the ten Olympic classes we saw a new generation of sailors show their potential to be selected to represent their countries at the next Olympic Games in 2028 in Los Angeles.”

“I would like to thank all the municipal teams and the many volunteers for their contribution and involvement in organising this major sailing event in our region. Finally, I wish all the best to all the competitors on the world sailing circuit who, once the competition is over, become ambassadors for our region.”

470 (mixed double-handed dinghy)
39 entries

1st – Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort (GER) – 43 pts
2nd – Jordi Xammar Hernández & Marta Cardona Alcántara (ESP) – 56
3rd – Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini (ITA) – 59

Germany’s Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort had confirmed gold on Friday with a lead of 21 points, so just had to avoid any penalty disqualification and enjoy the Medal Race. They did and despite the Italian duo of Giacomo Ferrari & Alessandra Dubbini roaring away to win the Medal Race, Spain’s Olympic bronze medallist at Tokyo 2020 (2021), Jordi Xammar Hernández, with his new teammate, Marta Cardona Alcántara, were able to keep track and silver.

It was mission accomplished for the German duo who had finished second earlier this month in the first round of the Sailing Grand Slam.

Simon Diesch & Anna Markfort (GER): “It’s been a great week. We’ve had it all. We’ve had the sun, light winds, strong winds, middling – a good mix of everything! We’re really happy with the final outcome.

We came away from Palma and there we were second. So we had an aim, right? One more place and we just ticked that box. We had a super solid week, nice progress.

Yesterday was a little tricky, but we also just had different challenges. We’re processing our processes! Sometimes it’s just obvious. Sometimes you’re out there and you know what the next right thing is, and this week, it was quite often obvious for us. And then it’s easy to stick to it, but also in the more difficult moment we kept clear heads and kept calm.

In the end, it’s exploration towards the Games and every win you can take on the road is an exclamation mark for yourself – and you’re like, well, we can do it, and you better watch out for us. The big thing is now also to take away some learnings out of it, but in the end, you have to know that feeling of how to win it and therefore it’s really important to win.

[On the Medal Race] The plan was for fun, and in the end, we had fun! We started super conservatively because the only real risk for us was an early start [and penalty], so basically, we started on port behind everyone else and made sure we were not over the line. That put us bow back for the entry of the race and down we started trying to catch up.

I think we managed quite well for the first upwind. We rounded in fourth or fifth and that’s basically where we stayed the whole race, had some gains, fought some games.

The Italians were ahead, they started pin end, got to the left, got more pressure on the left and the left shift came and then they were gone. So, they had a nice, controlled position and they played that very well.

[But the Spanish were with them and close?] Yes.”

ILCA 6 and 7 – (women’s & men’s solo dinghy)
The biggest fleet of boats in the regatta with 112entries in the ILCA 7 and 76 ILCA 6.

ILCA 6
1st – Chiara Benini Floriani (ITA) – 34 pts
2nd – Emma Plasschaert (BEL) – 36
3rd – Anna Munch (DEN) – 39

The closest of the Medal Races as Italy’s Chiara Benini Floriani (ITA) emerged ecstatically victorious by the narrowest of margins with a fourth-placed finish just enough to secure Italy’s second gold of the Regatta. Belgium’s Emma Plasschaert secured silver by winning the Medal Race and Denmark’s Anna Munch was second to take bronze. But there was heartbreak for America’s Charlotte Rose, who started the day with the yellow bib as leader, albeit by one point, but could only finish seventh in the Medal Race and fourth overall, level on points with Munch, but off the podium.

Chiara Benini Floriani (ITA): “I’m super happy, it was crazy today. It’s actually my first World Cup win. It still hasn’t sunk in. I’m really happy because the past few days have been really tricky sometimes, so I’ve been very consistent.

It was stable wind today and we’ve had wind from all the directions this week!
I made a very good start and a very good first upwind. Then I struggled a bit on the first downwind, but then I tried to reset, and I gained three positions on the last downwind, and it was enough.

She (Charlotte Rose) passed me on the first downwind.
The first upwind she went to the right, and I was certain about going left with Emma and the Danish girl. And on the second downwind, they went really on the left, but the mark was a bit on the right, so I said, okay, I’m not going to make the same error as before, so I’ll stay in the middle.

We were very close, we turned the upwind mark together.
It was very tight, very exciting.”

ILCA 7

1st – Nicholas Halliday (HKG) – 48 pts
2nd – Thomas Saunders (NZL) – 71
3rd – Duko Bos (NED) – 79

Hong Kong’s Nicholas Halliday

enjoyed his first ever Medal Race in World Cup event with a victory lap, after finishing Friday with a 23-point lead. Halliday finished fourth, with New Zealand’s Thomas Saunders one place ahead of him taking silver as Netherlands’ Duko Bos struggled in eighth after fading at the end of the week.

Halliday was 20th in the first round of the Sailing Grand Slam but led from the front for most of the week in Hyères.

Nicholas Halliday (HKG): “It was super stress free, really! I’d already won, so I just had to come in here and have good fun, and it’s my first Medal Race in a World Series. So yeah, to go into one of these races, stress free is pretty incredible. It was pretty windy today. It was good hiking. These conditions are really fun, especially on the downwinds. The upwinds are hard work, but the downwinds you’re just constantly surfing, and it’s loads of fun.

It’s a really, really high-level fleet. There are so many good guys here, and it’s just incredible to race against these top guys at the top of fleet. It was a really wide range of conditions (this week), but it was mostly offshore conditions, and it just kind of clicked for me of the shifts and just looking at the pressure on the water, I kind of had a good feeling for it.

I just felt pretty calm every day. I was just really patient, waiting for my turn, my shifts, looking at the pressure on the water. I just had a pretty open mind this whole week.

Now I go back home, I go back to Hong Kong, and I think most of the good guys here are going to go to China, we have a world championships in Qingdao (starts May 10) and that’s closer to home.”

Nacra 17 (mixed double-handed catamaran)
29 entries

Nacra 17

1st – John Gimson & Anna Burnett (GBR) – 49 pts
2nd – Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei (ITA) – 52
3rd – Willemijn Offerman & Scipio Houtman (NED) – 60

Britain’s John Gimson & Anna Burnett won gold and their second Sailing Grand Slam victory of the month, but they did not have it all on their own after starting the Medal Race seven points clear of their training partners, the Italian duo of Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei.

The British had to fight back from seventh after a tough start. The Italians got away and won the Race, the British pulled back to third and won the Regatta.
The Netherlands’ Willemijn Offerman & Scipio Houtman finished between them, in second, to jump up into bronze, displacing the Australian duo of Brin Liddell & Rhiannan Brown, who were eighth.

John Gimson & Anna Burnett (GBR): “It was actually a very difficult race. We thought we had a nice start, but then two boats managed to get a really good start above us, so they rolled us on the line, which put us in a really hard position – it was the left-hand track, like it often is in Easterly here. So, we had to fight back from the 7th to make sure we were in the top four – that was what we needed to win. We managed to get to third, so very happy with the comeback here. Very nice. I think we had one big day of Mistral, or two big days of Mistral, which we really enjoyed sailing in.

It’s super challenging, really exciting, lots of adrenaline. And these boats are so fast and fun to race in that. We’ve kind of just come back this spring to the fleet. We had a break after the Olympics, but it’s amazing to see how many young teams have pushed on through the winter and the level of the fleet is just coming up and up.

We have the Europeans coming up at the beginning of June in Greece, so that’s our next focus, and then the World’s not until October.”

49er (men’s and women’s double-handed skiff)

Women’s FX (38 entries)

1st – Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts (BEL) – 149 pts
2nd – Paris Henken & Helena Scutt (USA) – 151
3rd – Georgia Lewin-LaFrance & Antonia Lewin-LaFrance (CAN) – 156

In the most thrilling Medal Race of the day – tied with the ILCA 6 – Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts, held onto their yellow bib despite finishing second to last of the ten boats in the Medal Race, as this high-scoring regatta brought its final twists. They had a nerve-wracking start and nail-biting finish as they waited to hear from their coach boat whether they had done enough to win gold.

Their 13-point lead going into the start immediately evaporated as, uncertain who the judges were flagging, they and three other boats headed back to starting line to ensure they did not get disqualified for crossing early. This allowed the USA team, who started the day in fourth, to get away and they kept pushing, finishing second in the Medal Race and almost overturning the unlikeliest of margins. If they had passed the Italians and the Belgians had not passed the Germans on the second upwind, USA would have later been celebrating a double skiff victory.

The drama was equally as great behind the Americans, as Canada’s Lewin-LaFrance sisters took bronze by finishing one place ahead of the French duo, who had started the day in second, and finished on equal points.

Isaura Maenhaut & Anouk Geerts (BEL): “Excited! Super happy with how the week’s been. Just a bit stressful in the last race, but luckily, we just managed to sneak in there still.

We actually had a nice spot on the line, but we did a little double tack and we kind of lost track of where the line was and accelerated a bit too early. There was individual recall, so one person was over, so we didn’t want to take a risk of continuing and then maybe having a 10th place or OCS. So we went back together with three other people. So from then on, there was a fight to gain some places and we managed to win one, which was enough.

I think we were like, okay, for top seven, we’re safe, but then after the start, we were a bit far behind. We didn’t really talk about it on board, but sometimes we were looking in front and hoping that they (the Americans) were not doing too well. It still got quite close at a finish line with Italians and Americans being super close together. We actually didn’t know after we crossed the finish line, it was only when our coach came that we realised. That was a bit stressful.

We caught the boat ahead on the second upwind. We just said the whole time, we needed to put as many boats behind us as possible, so that was our goal, in the whole race. So, we managed to put them behind us, and in the end, we were a few boat lengths ahead.

I think for sure if you’re in the yellow bib, you don’t want to lose it, so it gives a little bit of extra stress. And for us it was one of the first times that we had the yellow bib, So, it’s new for us, and just happy with how it worked out.
I think it’s the highest points regatta ever where we came away with a win with like an average score of nine points or something. So, it was super up and down every day, a lot of different boats were doing well or not so good. Looking forward to some sleep!”

Men’s 49er (67 entries)

1st – Nevin Snow & Ian MacDiarmid (USA) – 101 pts
2nd – Richard Schultheis & Fabian Rieger (GER) – 104
3rd – Hernando Umpierre & Fernando Diz (URU) – 108

USA’s Nevin Snow & Ian MacDiarmid produced a controlled race to displace the yellow-bibbed leaders from Uruguay, hold off the Germans and cap a great day for American skiffs 45 minutes after the USA’s women’s FX duo had pulled off their great comeback to take silver.

The high scores kept on coming and as the wind eased for the last Medal Races of the day, and gambles got bigger. This time it cost the Uruguayans most. They started the Medal Race three points clear of USA, but trailed home last to finish with bronze after the Germans came second in the race.

Nevin Snow & Ian MacDiarmid (USA): “Amazing! Over the moon, you know. To win on the last race is something special. The Germans did a really nice job doing what they had to do, pretty much win the race. And so, you’re balancing the Uruguayans and the Germans, and after the first half of the first upwind, we’re like, all right, after we’ve got past the Uruguayans, got to just keep hammering.

And at that point, you gotta just be really patient, take your moments, and get close to the Germans as best you can, because you can lose it all in five seconds, but, it’s a lot harder to win it back! I think at one point the Germans might have been winning the race, but we were able to fight in the race and the points were so big that they couldn’t really hurt us. So, weren’t stressed but we knew we had to keep passing boats, even though we were getting more comfortable on the Uruguayans.

Think at the last weather mark, we started feeling more comfortable. We had a nice gap behind us, and there were boats to pass right in front of us as well, so we were quite comfortable that if we executed a nice downwind it would work out. We did pass one (boat), but I don’t think we actually needed to in the end, but it is always nice, you feel a little more secure.

[Great day for American skiff sailing]. The ladies had an amazing day; they almost won their whole regatta as well and sailed amazingly. We clearly like France! You’re seeing continuity and a lot of hard work from a lot of people here and back home and we’re gonna keep working pretty hard to try to make it a little more normal.

[Will success bring more support back home?] Hopefully we’re going to find out. It’s been a while since there was a World Cup win for the States, so we’ll see.
One of the keys is a really tight knit team. All these guys are fast, all really smart.
It’s making sure that you’re there with your band, pushing hard, through thick and thin.

[Popular winners and camaraderie between the teams] The community is really cool. Same with the US. Some of these guys have been at the top for almost two quads (Olympic cycles) now, some of us are just getting there. We all appreciate and respect the work that’s going into this, because it’s really darn hard, long trips, long regattas and I think the nice thing is whenever you do well, it feels very earned.”

See you next year for the 57th edition of French Olympic Week (Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères – Toulon Provence Méditerranée) from April 18-25.

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Virtual Olympic Week 2025 starts May 6

The French Olympic Week collaboration with Virtual Regatta is back! And we’re offering an event open to everyone on Virtual Regatta Inshore. This year, French Olympic Week will take place on May 6, 7, and 8. Over the three days, three 24-hour challenges will be launched in virtual Olympic classes (ILCA, NACRA 17, and 49er). This event will also select the best French players, who will compete in an all-French final (for virtual players licensed by FFVoile) on May 17. Three leaderboards will be published at the end of the event. The top three in the overall ranking will win one month of VIP access, and the top three real racers (i.e., players who actually competed in the SOF 2025) will be offered registrations for SOF 2026 by the race organisation. Finally, the top three finishers in the May 17 final will earn their tickets to the semi-finals of the 2025 French e-sailing Championship.