World Sailing's Council has unanimously approved a regulatory amendment to enable alternative event(s) to the Mixed Two Person Offshore Keelboat, for sailing's 10th medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to be proposed.

As Afloat reported previously, following a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for such proposals, World Sailing's Board published a Submission to temporarily amend the World Sailing Regulations on 17 April 2021 and called a Council meeting for today [23 April 2021] to consider the Submission.

World Sailing's Council unanimously approved the submission during a video conference which will allow decisions to be made at the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting.

World Sailing's process commenced on 16 April 2021 after the IOC informed World Sailing that the Mixed Offshore Event proposal has continued to be reviewed, consistent with the approach taken for other sports, but challenges existed in the areas of:

Field of Play security, scope and complexity, broadcast cost and complexity and World Sailing not having the opportunity to deliver an Offshore World Championship

The IOC are continuing their assessment of the Mixed Offshore Event to address these points, however formally requested that World Sailing propose alternative event(s).

MNAs, Class Associations, Committee Chairs and the Board were invited to propose alternatives in the form of late submissions for the Mid-Year Meeting on 17 April 2021. This will conclude at midday on 26 April 2021.

Late Submissions will be published on the World Sailing website on 30 April 2021.

At the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting, the Constitution, Events and Equipment Committees will meet on 10-11 May 2021. They will consider the late submissions on alternative event(s) and make their respective recommendations to Council.

World Sailing's Council will meet on 14 May 2021. They will discuss and vote on all submissions. The outcome of the process will be two alternative events, ranked in order of preference, ahead of the IOC deadline, which is 26 May 2021.