Olympic Windsurfing Sails Into the Sunset

Windsurfing made a spirited games exit, with Dorian Van Rijsselberge of the Netherlands collecting the men’s gold medal he’d clinched days earlier and Marina Alabau of Spain winning the women’s regatta.

Windsurfing got the heave-ho from the lineup for the 2016 Rio Olympics in a vote in May, replaced by kiteboarding, an Olympic level expression of the evolution of the two sports. The International RS:X Class Association filed a legal challenge last week against the International Sailing Federation.

Van Rijsselberge and Alabau will probably have to focus on kiteboarding if they want to stay in the Olympics.

“Yeah, I think this was a mistake,” Alabau said about windsurfing getting blown out of the games. “I think it will come back. This is my hope and this is what I think will be the right thing. I know how to kite and I will kite if they don’t give me another chance, but I love windsurfing.”

Associated Press