Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics) in Athens, Greece. With the exception of 1904 and the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1968 consisted of a total of five sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 14 October 1968 to 21 October 1968 off the coast of Acapulco in the Bay of Acapulco. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.
Venue
Acapulco Bay is located on the Pacific coast in the state of Guerrero, 250 miles from Mexico City. The facilities at Club de Yates were improved and modified. 20,000 square metres of new docks provided with potable water, electricity and telephones were created. The buoys bearing colored flags delineated the three course areas.
Technical control was assured by a staff of measurers for gauging all yachts before racing.
The Olympic Village, located in the Caleta Hotel, provided accommodation for 503 competitors, trainers, team managers from 40 countries.
Competition
Overview
{| class="wikitable"
!width=50|Continents
!width=50|Countries
!width=50|Classes
!width=50|Boats
!width=50|Male
!width=50|Female
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| align="center"| 5 || align="center"| 41 || align="center"| 5 || align="center"| 123 || align="center"| 251 || align="center"| 0
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Continents
- Asia
- Oceania
- Europe
- Americas
Countries
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|style="vertical-align:top;"|[[Image:Sailingmap OG 1968.png|thumb|260px|left|Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1968 Olympic Games.
<br><span style="color:#D7EEFF;"> Blue:</span> Water
<br><span style="color:#EAEBDF;"> Gray:</span> Never participated in OG
<br><span style="color:#AAA793;"> Dark Gray:</span> Participated in earlier OG
<br><span style="color:#005E2B;"> Green:</span> Country participated for the first time
<br><span style="color:#003964;"> Dark Blue:</span> Country participated also on previous games
<br><span style="color:#C00000;"> Red:</span> Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG]]
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Classes (equipment)
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! Class !! Type !! Event !! Sailors !! Trapeze !! Mainsail !! Jib/Genoa !! Spinnaker !! First OG !! Olympics so far
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|style="text-align:left"| Finn || Dinghy || 9px || 1 || 0 || + || – || – || 1952 || 5
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|style="text-align:left"| Flying Dutchman || Dinghy || 9px || 2 || 1 || + || + || + || 1960 || 3
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|style="text-align:left"| Star || Keelboat || 9px || 2 || 0 || + || + || – || 1932 || 8
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|style="text-align:left"| Dragon || Keelboat || 9px || 3 || 0 || + || + || + || 1948 || 6
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|style="text-align:left"| 5.5 Metre || Keelboat || 9px || 3 || 0 || + || + || + || 1952 || 5
|}
13px = Male, 15px = Female, 9px = Open
Medal summary
{|
|-
| style="align:center;" | x20px<br>
1968: Finn <br>
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Soviet Union Soviet Union <span style="font-size:90%;">(URS)</span><br>Valentin Mankin
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Austria Austria <span style="font-size:90%;">(AUT)</span><br>Hubert Raudaschl
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Italy Italy <span style="font-size:90%;">(ITA)</span><br>Fabio Albarelli
|-
| style="align:center;" | x20px<br>
1968: Flying Dutchman <br>
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Great Britain Great Britain <span style="font-size:90%;">(GBR)</span><br>Rodney Pattisson<br>Iain MacDonald-Smith
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|West Germany West Germany <span style="font-size:90%;">(FRG)</span><br>Ulli Libor<br>Peter Naumann
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Brazil Brazil <span style="font-size:90%;">(BRA)</span><br>Reinaldo Conrad<br>Burkhard Cordes
|-
| style="align:center;" | x20px<br>
1968: Star <br>
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|United States United States <span style="font-size:90%;">(USA)</span><br>Lowell North<br>Peter Barrett
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Norway Norway <span style="font-size:90%;">(NOR)</span><br>Peder Lunde Jr.<br>Per Wiken
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Italy Italy <span style="font-size:90%;">(ITA)</span><br>Franco Cavallo<br>Camillo Gargano
|-
| style="align:center;" | x20px<br>
1968: Dragon <br>
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|United States United States <span style="font-size:90%;">(USA)</span><br>George Friedrichs<br>Barton Jahncke<br>Gerald Schreck
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Denmark Denmark <span style="font-size:90%;">(DEN)</span><br>Aage Birch<br>Paul Lindemark Jørgensen<br>Niels Markussen
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|East Germany East Germany <span style="font-size:90%;">(GDR)</span><br>Paul Borowski<br>Karl-Heinz Thun<br>Konrad Weichert
|-
| style="align:center;" | x20px<br>
1968: 5.5 Metre <br>
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Sweden Sweden <span style="font-size:90%;">(SWE)</span><br>Ulf Sundelin<br>Jörgen Sundelin<br>Peter Sundelin
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Switzerland Switzerland <span style="font-size:90%;">(SUI)</span><br>Louis Noverraz<br>Bernhard Dunand<br>Marcel Stern
|style="vertical-align:top;"|22x20px|border|alt=|link=|Great Britain Great Britain <span style="font-size:90%;">(GBR)</span><br>Robin Aisher<br>Paul Anderson<br>Adrian Jardine
|}
Medal table
Remarks
Sailing
- This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men-only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988.
- was trying to win his fifth gold medal. This time in the Star. He came close. 4th.
- won his first Olympic medal (Gold) in his boat Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It is difficult to appoint Olympic records to sailing, but the score of this Flying Dutchman team would hold probably the record of best Olympic score: <s>DSQ</s>, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2!
- In each of the five classes there was a major difference in points between the gold and the silver medalists.
Sailors
During the Sailing regattas at the 1968 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:
- Royalties
- , King of Norway, HRH Crown Prince Harald in the 5.5 Metre
- Sport managers
- , President International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge in the Finn
- , Future president International Sailing Federation, Peter Tallberg in the Star
- , Future president International Sailing Federation, Paul Henderson in the Finn
- . Future holder of the Silver Olympic Order, George Andreadis in the Flying Dutchman