Sailing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification explained

This article details the qualifying phase for sailing at the 2020 Summer Olympics . 350 quota places for the Games are entitled to the sailors coming from their respective NOCs, based on the results at designated regattas supervised by World Sailing. Host nation Japan has been guaranteed one quota place in each of the ten classes.

The qualification period commences at the 2018 Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, where about forty percent of the total quota will be awarded to the highest finishing NOCs. Six places will be available in the men's Laser and women's Laser Radial classes at the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Pan American Games, whereas sixty-one more will be distributed to the sailors at the World Championships for all boats in 2019. Moving towards 2021 because of the consequent Olympic postponement and the COVID-19 pandemic, continental qualification regattas will be held to decide the remainder of the total quota, while two spots each in the one-person dinghy classes will be granted to eligible NOCs through the Tripartite Commission Invitation.^[1]

Timeline

Event	Date	Venue
	July 30 – August 12, 2018	Aarhus
	August 18 – September 2, 2018
2019 Finn European Championships	May 10–18, 2019	Athens^[2] ^[3]
2019 Laser World Championships	July 1–9, 2019	Sakaiminato^[4]
2019 Women's Laser Radial World Championships	July 16–24, 2019
	July 26 – August 11, 2019	Paracas
	August 2–9, 2019	Enoshima
	September 22–28, 2019	Torbole^[5]
2019 Nacra 17 World Championships	December 3–8, 2019	Auckland^[6]
2019 49er & 49er FX World Championships
Africa Qualification Events
2019 African Sailing Championships (RS:X, Laser, Laser Radial)	October 6–12, 2019	Algiers
2020 African Sailing Championships (470)	January 12–18, 2020	Luanda
2021 Lanzarote International Regatta (Nacra 17)	March 23–28, 2021	Lanzarote
2021 Mussanah Open Championships (49er and 49erFX)	April 1–8, 2021	Al-Mussanah
2021 Finn Gold Cup	May 4–12, 2021	Porto
Asia Qualification Events
2019 Sailing World Cup Enoshima (Finn)	August 25 – September 1, 2019	Enoshima
2019 Asian Sailing Championships (470)	December 16–21, 2019	Shenzhen
2021 Asian Sailing Championships (Nacra 17)	March 1–6, 2021	Shanghai
2021 Mussanah Open Championships (RS:X, Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX)	April 1–8, 2021	Al-Mussanah
Europe Qualification Events
2020 RS:X European Championships	November 22–28, 2020	Vilamoura
	March 5–13, 2021
2021 Lanzarote International Regatta (49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17)	March 23–28, 2021	Lanzarote
2021 Vilamoura International Regatta (Laser and Laser Radial)	April 17–24, 2021	Vilamoura
2021 Finn Gold Cup	May 4–12, 2021	Porto
North America Qualification Events
2019 Pan American Games (49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17)	July 26 – August 11, 2019	Paracas^[7]
2020 Sailing World Cup Miami (RS:X, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial, and 470)	January 19–25, 2020	Miami
South America Qualification Events
2019 Pan American Games (49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17)	July 26 – August 11, 2019	Paracas
2019 Copa Brasil (Laser, Laser Radial, Finn)	November 25–30, 2019	Rio de Janeiro
2020 South American Sailing Championships (RS:X)	February 9–15, 2020	Mar del Plata
2020 South American Sailing Championships (470)	February 11–17, 2020
Oceania Qualification Events
	December 16–21, 2019	Melbourne
2020 Sail Melbourne International (470)	January 17–21, 2020
2020 Nacra 17 World Championships	February 8–15, 2020	Geelong
2020 49er & 49er FX World Championships
2020 Laser World Championships	February 9–16, 2020	Melbourne
2020 Women's Laser Radial World Championships	February 21–28, 2020
	February 23–29, 2020	Sorrento

Quota places

Below are the number of boats. 470, 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 classes have crew of 2 people per boat.

Event											Hosts
Men
RS:X class	10	0	0	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	25
Laser class	14	1	2	5	2	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	35
Finn class	8	0	0	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	19
470 class	8	0	0	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	19
49er class	8	0	0	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	19
Women
RS:X class	11	0	0	9	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	27
Laser Radial class	18	1	2	10	2	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	44
470 class	8	0	0	6	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	21
49erFX class	8	0	0	7	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	21
Mixed
Nacra 17	8	0	0	5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	20

Qualification summary

Nation	Men					Women				Mixed	Total
	width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=50		width=35	Boats	width=49	Athletes
											2	2
											1	2
											1	2
											1	1
											8	11
											8	13
											3	6
											2	2
											3	4
											8	13
											6	9
											1	1
											8	12
											3	4
											4	4
											1	1
											5	8
											2	2
											1	1
											2	2
											1	1
											4	5
											9	14
											6	10
											10	15
											6	6
											2	2
											3	3
											4	4
											3	4
											2	3
											4	5
											6	9
											10	15
											2	2
											3	4
											4	4
											1	1
											2	3
											7	10
											6	10
											6	8
											2	2
											4	5
											6	9
											3	5
											1	2
											5	6
											2	2
											1	1
											1	1
											3	4
											2	3
											2	3
											3	4
											10	15
											6	9
											4	6
											3	3
											1	1
											2	4
											6	8
											9	13
											2	3
											1	1
Total: 65 NOCs	25	35	19	19	19	27	44	21	21	20	250	350

Men's events

Windsurfer – RS:X

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Makoto Tomizawa
			1		Kiran Badloe
		2018 Worlds	3		Thomas Goyard
		2018 Worlds	4		Tom Squires
		2018 Worlds	5		Piotr Myszka
		2018 Worlds	6		Mattia Camboni
		2018 Worlds	7		Byron Kokkalanis
		2018 Worlds	9		Bi Kun
		2018 Worlds	13		Ángel Granda
10		2018 Worlds	14		Yoav Cohen
11		2018 Worlds	17		Endre Funnemark
12		2019 Worlds	9		Cho Won-woo
13		2019 Worlds	13
14		2019 Worlds	23		Mikita Tsirkun
15		2019 Worlds	25		Mateo Sanz Lanz
16		2019 Worlds	33		Juozas Bernotas
17		2019 Worlds	42		Pedro Pascual
18		2019 Worlds	43		Andreas Cariolou
19		2019 Worlds	46		Karel Lavický
20		2019 Worlds	54		Onur Cavit Biriz
21		2019 African	1		Hamza Bouras
22		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	1		Natthaphong Phonoppharat
—		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	54
23		2020 European	20		Aleksandr Askerov
24		2020 World Cup (NAM)	2		Ignacio Berenguer
25		2020 South American	1

One-person dinghy – Laser

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Kenji Nanri
			1		Pavlos Kontides
		2018 Worlds	2		Matthew Wearn
		2018 Worlds	3		Philipp Buhl
		2018 Worlds	4		Sam Meech
		2018 Worlds	5		Elliot Hanson
		2018 Worlds	6		Hermann Tomasgaard
		2018 Worlds	9		Jean-Baptiste Bernaz
		2018 Worlds	11		Charlie Buckingham
10		2018 Worlds	12		Kaarle Tapper
11		2018 Worlds	17		Karl-Martin Rammo
12		2018 Worlds	19		Robert Scheidt
13		2018 Worlds	20		Tonči Stipanović
14		2018 Worlds	21		Stefano Peschiera
15		2018 Worlds	22		Ha Jee-min
16			2		Khairulnizam Afendy
17		2019 Worlds	13		Jesper Stålheim
18		2019 Worlds	14		Francisco Guaragna
19		2019 Worlds	17		Sergey Komissarov
20		2019 Worlds	20		Benjámin Vadnai
21		2019 Worlds	26		Žan Luka Zelko
—		2019 Worlds	30
22		2019 Worlds	34		Wannes Van Laer
23			1		Juan Ignacio Maegli
24			4		Enrique Arathoon
25		2019 African	1		Rodney Govinden
26		2019 African	2		Aly Badawy
27		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	1		Ryan Lo
28		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	2	Vishnu Saravanan	Vishnu Saravanan
29		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	115		Eroni Leilua
30		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	123		Teariki Numa
31		Vilamoura Int'l Regatta (Europe)	9		Joel Rodríguez
—		Vilamoura Int'l Regatta (Europe)	11
32		2020 World Cup (NAM)	4		Andrew Lewis
33		2019 Copa Brasil (SAM)	1		Clemente Seguel
34		Tripartite			Milivoj Dukić
35		Tripartite			Luc Chevrier

Heavyweight one-person dinghy – Finn

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Kazumasa Segawa
			1		Zsombor Berecz
		2018 Worlds	2		Max Salminen
		2018 Worlds	3		Nicholas Heiner
		2018 Worlds	4
		2018 Worlds	5		Tom Ramshaw
		2018 Worlds	7		Facundo Olezza
		2018 Worlds	8		Giles Scott
		2018 Worlds	9		Alican Kaynar
10		2019 European (Worlds)	7		Jorge Zarif
11		2019 European (Worlds)	9
12		2019 European (Worlds)	11		Luke Muller
13		2019 European (Worlds)	13		Ioannis Mitakis
14		2021 Finn Gold Cup (Africa)	44		Leo Davis
15		2019 World Cup (Asia)	19		He Chen
16		2019 Finn Gold Cup (Oceania)	5		Jake Lilley
17		2021 Finn Gold Cup (Europe)	2		Joan Cardona
18		2020 World Cup (NAM)	6		Juan Ignacio Pérez
19		2019 Copa Brasil (SAM)	4		Andres Lage

Two-person dinghy – 470

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Keiju Okada Jumpei Hokazono
			1		Kevin Peponnet Jérémie Mion
		2018 Worlds	3		Jordi Xammar Nicolás Rodríguez
		2018 Worlds	4		Anton Dahlberg Fredrik Bergström
		2018 Worlds	5		Mathew Belcher William Ryan
		2018 Worlds	7		Stuart McNay David Hughes
		2018 Worlds	9		Giacomo Ferrari Giulio Calabrò
		2018 Worlds	11		Luke Patience Chris Grube
		2018 Worlds	12		Paul Snow-Hansen Daniel Willcox
10		2019 Worlds	4		Panagiotis Mantis Pavlos Kagialis
11		2019 Worlds	11
12		2019 Worlds	12		Xu Zangjun Wang Yang
13		2019 Worlds	13		Deniz Çınar Ateş Çınar
14		2019 African	1		Matias Montinho Paixão Afonso
15		2019 Asian	1		Park Gun-woo Cho Sung-min
16		Sail Melbourne Int'l (Oceania)	1		Tyler Paige Adrian Hoesch
17		2021 Worlds (Europe)	2		Diogo Costa Pedro Costa
18		2020 World Cup (NAM)	23		Jacob Saunders Oliver Bone
19		2020 South American	1		Henrique Haddad Bruno Bethlem

Skiff – 49er

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Leonard Takahashi Ibuki Koizumi
			1		Šime Fantela Mihovil Fantela
		2018 Worlds	2		Émile Amoros Lucas Rual
		2018 Worlds	3		Erik Heil Thomas Plößel
		2018 Worlds	5		Dylan Fletcher Stuart Bithell
		2018 Worlds	7		Peter Burling Blair Tuke
		2018 Worlds	9		Jorge Lima José Costa
		2018 Worlds	10		Lucien Cujean Sébastien Schneiter
		2018 Worlds	11		Jakob Precht Jensen Jonas Warrer
10		2019 Worlds	4		Diego Botín Iago López
11		2019 Worlds	6		Benjamin Bildstein David Hussl
12		2019 Worlds	8		Bart Lambriex Pim van Vugt
13		2019 Worlds	10		Łukasz Przybytek Paweł Kołodziński
14		2019 Pan American (NAM)	3		William Jones Evan DePaul
15		2019 Pan American (SAM)	1		Marco Grael Gabriel Borges
16		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	5		William Phillips Sam Phillips
17		2021 Mussanah Open (Africa)	6		Benjamin Talbot Alex Burger
18		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	1
19		Lanzarote Int'l Regatta (Europe)	3		Robert Dickson Sean Waddilove

Women's events

Windsurfer – RS:X

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Yuki Sunaga
			1		Lilian de Geus
		2018 Worlds	2		Charline Picon
		2018 Worlds	3		Lu Yunxiu
		2018 Worlds	4		Emma Wilson
		2018 Worlds	5		Zofia Noceti-Klepacka
		2018 Worlds	7		Marta Maggetti
		2018 Worlds	11		Katy Spychakov
		2018 Worlds	12		Blanca Manchón
10		2018 Worlds	14		Lærke Buhl-Hansen
11		2018 Worlds	17		Anna Khvorikova
12		2018 Worlds	19		Ingrid Puusta
13		2019 Worlds	10		Hayley Chan
14		2019 Worlds	15
15		2019 Worlds	26		Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén
16		2019 Worlds	27		María Belén Bazo
17		2019 Worlds	36		Dilara Uralp
18		2019 Worlds	44		Demita Vega
19		2019 Worlds	51		Sára Cholnoky
20		2019 Worlds	56		Farrah Hall
21		2019 Worlds	57		Siripon Kaewduang-ngam
22		2019 Worlds	60		Natasa Lappa
23		2019 African	1		Amina Berrichi
24		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	1		Amanda Ng
—		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	24
25		2020 European	18		Aikaterini Divari
26		2020 World Cup (NAM)	4		Nikola Girke
27		2020 South American	1		María Celia Tejerina

One-person dinghy – Laser Radial

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Manami Doi
			1
		2018 Worlds	2		Marit Bouwmeester
		2018 Worlds	3		Anne-Marie Rindom
		2018 Worlds	4		Tuula Tenkanen
		2018 Worlds	5		Paige Railey
		2018 Worlds	6		Sarah Douglas
		2018 Worlds	7		Alison Young
		2018 Worlds	8		Mária Érdi
10		2018 Worlds	9		Maud Jayet
11		2018 Worlds	10		Ecem Güzel
12		2018 Worlds	12		Magdalena Kwaśna
13		2018 Worlds	16		Vasileia Karachaliou
14		2018 Worlds	17		Silvia Zennaro
15		2018 Worlds	18		Josefin Olsson
16		2018 Worlds	19		Marie Bolou
17		2018 Worlds	21		Line Flem Høst
18		2018 Worlds	25		Zhang Dongshuang
19		2018 Worlds	26		Svenja Weger
20			3		Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif
21		2019 Worlds	20		Elena Vorobeva
22		2019 Worlds	28		Viktorija Andrulytė
23		2019 Worlds	40		Tatiana Drozdovskaya
24		2019 Worlds	41		Mara Stransky
25		2019 Worlds	45		Ekaterina Zyuzina
26		2019 Worlds	46		Annalise Murphy
—		2019 Worlds	47
27		2019 Worlds	50		Marilena Makri
28		2019 Worlds	51		Isabella Maegli
29		2019 Worlds	52		Kamolwan Chanyim
30		2019 Worlds	53		Cristina Pujol
31			3		Lucía Falasca
32			4		Dolores Moreira
33		2019 African	1		Deisy Nhaquile
34		2019 African	2		Khouloud Mansy
35		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	2
36		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	3	Stephanie Norton	Stephanie Norton
37		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	97		Sophia Morgan
38		2020 Worlds (Oceania)	102		Rose-Lee Numa
39		Vilamoura Int'l Regatta (Europe)	39		Shay Kakon
40		Vilamoura Int'l Regatta (Europe)	44		Carolina João
41		2020 World Cup (NAM)	8		Elena Oetling
42		2019 Copa Brasil (SAM)	1		Paloma Schmidt
43		Tripartite			Jalese Gordon
44		Tripartite			Stephanie Devaux-Lovell

Two-person dinghy – 470

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Ai Kondo Miho Yoshioka
			2		Silvia Mas Patricia Cantero
		2018 Worlds	3		Hannah Mills Eilidh McIntyre
		2018 Worlds	4		Camille Lecointre Aloïse Retornaz
		2018 Worlds	6		Wei Mengxi Gao Haiyan
		2018 Worlds	7		Elena Berta Bianca Caruso
		2018 Worlds	9		Ariadne Paraskevi Spanaki Emilia Tsoulfa
		2018 Worlds	10		Tina Mrak Veronika Macarol
		2018 Worlds	11		Shahar Tibi Noya Bar Am
10		2019 Worlds	7	Agnieszka Skrzypulec Jolanta Ogar	Agnieszka Skrzypulec Jolanta Ogar
11		2019 Worlds	8		Fernanda Oliveira Ana Barbachan
12		2019 Worlds	9		Nia Jerwood Monique de Vries
13		2019 Worlds	12		Afrodite Zegers Lobke Berkhout
—		2019 Worlds	15
14		2019 Worlds	16		Luise Wanser Anastasiya Winkel
15		2019 Worlds	18		Linda Fahrni Maja Siegenthaler
16		2019 Worlds	27		Olivia Bergström Lovisa Karlsson
17		2019 African	6		Denise Parruque Maria Machava
18		2019 Asian	5		Nuraisyah Jamil Juni Karimah Noor Jamali
—		Sail Melbourne Int'l (Oceania)
19		2021 Worlds (Europe)	22		Beste Kaynakcı Okyanus Arıkan
20		2020 World Cup (NAM)	8		Nikki Barnes Lara Dallman-Weiss
21		2020 South American	1		María Belén Tavella Lourdes Hartkopf

Skiff – 49er FX

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Anna Yamazaki Sena Takano
		2018 Worlds	1		Annemiek Bekkering Annette Duetz
			2		Tanja Frank Lorena Abicht
		2018 Worlds	3		Charlotte Dobson Saskia Tidey
		2018 Worlds	4		Martine Grael Kahena Kunze
		2018 Worlds	5		Ida Marie Baad Nielsen Marie Thusgaard Olsen
		2018 Worlds	8		Alexandra Maloney Molly Meech
		2018 Worlds	9		Marie Rønningen Helene Næss
		2018 Worlds	11		Tess Lloyd Jaime Ryan
10		2019 Worlds	5		Tina Lutz Susann Beucke
11		2019 Worlds	8		Victoria Travascio María Sol Branz
12		2019 Worlds	9		Stephanie Roble Maggie Shea
13		2019 Worlds	12
14		2019 Worlds	14		Paula Barceló Támara Echegoyen
15		2019 Worlds	15		Kimberly Lim Cecilia Low
16		2019 Worlds	16		Albane Dubois Lili Sebesi
17		2021 Mussanah Open (Africa)	6
18		2021 Mussanah Open (Asia)	1		Chen Shasha Ye Jin
—		2020 Worlds (Oceania)
19		2021 Lanzarote Int'l Regatta (Europe)	7		Anouk Geurts Isaura Maenhaut
20		2019 Pan American (NAM)	4		Alexandra Ten Hove Mariah Millen
21		2019 Pan American (SAM)	5		Diana Tudela María Pia van Oordt

Mixed events

Multihull – Nacra 17

	Nation	Qualification Tournament	Place in Event	Sailor	Sailor at Games
		Host Country			Shibuki Iitsuka Eri Hatayama
			1		Ruggero Tita Caterina Banti
		2018 Worlds	2		Jason Waterhouse Lisa Darmanin
		2018 Worlds	3
		2018 Worlds	4		Christian Peter Lübeck Lin Ea Cenholt
		2018 Worlds	5		Samuel Albrecht Gabriela Nicolino de Sá
		2018 Worlds	8		John Gimson Anna Burnet
		2018 Worlds	9		Thomas Zajac Barbara Matz
		2018 Worlds	11		Micah Wilkinson Erica Dawson
10		2019 Worlds	5		Tara Pacheco Florián Trittel
11		2019 Worlds	10		Quentin Delapierre Manon Audinet
12		2019 Worlds	11
13		2019 Worlds	14		Riley Gibbs Anna Weis
14		2019 Worlds	21		Nicholas Fadler Martinsen Martine Steller Mortensen
15		2019 Worlds	26		Emil Järudd Cecilia Jonsson
16		Lanzarote Int'l Regatta (Africa)	20		Mehdi Gharbi Rania Rahali
17		2021 Asian	1
—		2020 Worlds (Oceania)
18		Lanzarote Int'l Regatta (Europe)	5		Akseli Keskinen Sinem Kurtbay
19		2019 Pan American (NAM)	6		Enrique Figueroa Gretchen Ortiz
20		2019 Pan American (SAM)	4		Pablo Defazio Dominique Knüppel

Notes and References

1. News: Dan. Palmer. World Sailing unveil Tokyo 2020 qualification system. World Sailing. 8 April 2018. 22 June 2018.
2. News: https://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/20210304Tokyo2020RevisedQualificationSystemSailingannexeng-[26985.pdf Tokyo 2020 Olympic Qualification Events]. World Sailing. 4 March 2021. 5 March 2021.
3. News: Athens selected to host 2019 Finn European Championship. International Finn Association. 31 January 2019. 22 July 2018.
4. News: Olympic sailing calendar set for 2019-2020. World Sailing. 3 August 2018. 8 August 2018.
5. News: 2019 RS:X World Championships assigned to Circolo Surf Torbole. World Sailing. 18 September 2017. 22 July 2018.
6. News: NZ to host 2019 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 world champs. The New Zealand Herald. 14 March 2018. 22 July 2018.
7. News: 49er added to Pan Am Games sports programme as athlete quote increased. World Sailing. 17 January 2019. 18 January 2019.