Er lijkt toch weer een kans te zijn dat het kitesurfen op de olympische spelen komt. Er komt een extra sport plekje vrij en de ISAF wil daar graag het kitesurfen zien.

Dateline Oman 15th November 2013 –ISAF President Carlo Croce

The International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has announced that the if additional medals shall be sought from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Tokyo 2020 and if additional medals are allocated, kiteboarding events will be selected first.

The decision was made at the 2013 ISAF Annual Conference, in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, where the ISAF Council made the final decisions that will affect the sport in the next years.

Also, kiteboarding will be included in the ISAF Worlds and ISAF Sailing World Cup where practical and within the constraints of current contracts, resources and venues.

Finally, the ISAF Council decided that the Class status will be awarded to the Formula Kiteboard, Twin Tip Kiteboard, 49erFX, Nacra 17, and J70 subject to them signing the ISAF Class agreement and satisfactory building specification.

‘We want to support the Kite as an extra Olympic Medal in 2020. The new so called urban sports category would be the perfect platform for Kite – we want Kite to be in all our important sailing events; we were asked by the IOC not to change their system of evolution events. Again added value sports are needed for TV and this will be our answer’.

There we have it then and right from the top, kiteboarding adds value to sailing, a good way to be regarded then.

In presentations earlier in the week the IKA reported back on its meetings with the IOC. They have let it be known that they are still keen to see kiteboard join the Olympics, but not as another fleet racing event and have indicated that the short-track format is what they would prefer to see – part of that new ‘urban sports’ feel that President Croce refers to above.

Also on the table this week at the Conference for kiting is the hope to bring kite racing into the ISAF World Cup circuit, which until now has been the reserve of the Olympic classes only. The TT race class was another big topic as it seeks approval to be a full ISAF class endorsing it further as kiteboardings feeder class into the racing scene.

Both were well received and recommended throughout the week by the various sub-committees that first needed to approve such things. This now means that only one step remains and that is for the ISAF Council itself to have the final say and vote.