Why Can’t I Watch Kitesurfing At The Olympics in Paris 2024
Tue 6th Aug, 2024 @ 2:38 pm
There has been a lot of excitement about the inclusion of kitesurfing in the Olympics in Paris 2024. It’s huge news for our sport and a fantastic opportunity to inspire people to take up the sport. Before the Olympics, we published a guide, “Kitesurfing at the Paris 2024 Olympics—What You Need to Know!” on the format for the event and how to watch it.
Sadly, no one’s seen a single bit of kite racing, and many of you wonder why. I’ll do my best to explain the sh!t show over in Paris right now.
The International Olympic Committee, aka the IOC, owns all the broadcast rights to the Olympic Games, including TV, radio, and Internet platforms. They decide who can show the games in each country. The general rule is that they pick one broadcaster per country: the BBC in the UK, CBC in Canada, and NBC in the USA.
There are also larger platforms like Eurosport awarded broadcasting rights. But the IOC keep it very, very tight. Journalists allowed into the Games on a media pass must be affiliated with a large national broadcaster or publisher, so in the UK, unless you are with the BBC or writing for one of the major national newspapers, you are left out in the cold, that includes us, the biggest kitesurfing media outlet globally who don’t even get a look in.
At the Games, there are loads of events happening at the same time: swimmers are in the pool, athletes are on the track, people are shooting guns, and somewhere else, someone is playing table tennis. This means for the national broadcasters they need to make a choice of what to show and when, they simply can’t cover it all.
So the BBC, NBC and CBC will focus on the athletes who might be getting a medal in the sports they think are the most interesting on any given day. Essentially streamlining the coverage to what they deem interesting content for people from that nation.
Larger broadcasters like Eurosport, Discovery Plus, or Peacock in the US will show all sports at the same time on the live stream, giving you the option to watch whatever event you want whenever you want with replays. Obviously, this costs money, and I am sure many of you, including me, paid up ahead of the games, hoping to see one of the greatest sports in the world at the biggest showcase there is.
Sadly, we’ve been conned. There hasn’t been a single broadcast of kite racing over the last three days. It f*cking sucks, big time.
Why? Well, a long time ago, when kiteboarding was looking to become an Olympic sport (a decision I question to this day and kind of feel justified about right now), there was the issue of how you get a behemoth like the IOC to recognise a tiny little sport like kiteboarding. At the time, kite racing was booming, with big fleets all over the world discovering the joy of going fast in next to no wind.
This was before foils became a thing, and a group of riders, including Markus Schwendtner from the fairly newly formed International Kitesurfing Association, decided they wanted to get kitesurfing, specifically kite racing, recognised as an Olympic sport.
The fastest, easiest way to do this was to approach World Sailing and lobby them to include kite racing as a sailing class. The next step would be to get the class included in the Olympic Games under the sport of Sailing. It was a fast-track route that is now sadly coming home to roost.
World Sailing were never keen on kite racing being included. Think of a board of fuddy old dudes in blazers quaffing expensive wine on yachts while watching with scorn the various dinghy classes and you have an idea of what the board looks like. It would be an understatement to say they weren’t that keen on kitesurfing being included as a sailing class.
Long story short, Markus and the IKA won over, and kite racing was included as a sailing class. Then, to huge fanfare, it was included in the 2016 games, replacing the windsurfing class. Sadly, after 6 months of excitement, it was then dropped after an uproar from the windsurfers, understandably…
This is all because the number of medals at the games is limited. If there were 8 sailing events, that meant 16 potential gold medals for men and women, and the IOC was not about to give World Sailing another event and another two medals.
Essentially, kitesurfing had to wait and bide its time and, with lots of lobbying, kicked out another old dinghy class to get its place. At one point, there was talk of kite racing being a team event with the men and women sharing the gold. It looked like a bit of a harem scream relay race at 45 knots.
This gives you an idea that kiteboarding was prepared to do anything just to get into the Games. It genuinely felt like the Olympics at any cost, whatever format it took, whether that was good for the sport or the riders or not.
Anyway, this backdrop gives you the arena for what we have now: an unwelcome sailing class at an event with limited coverage. World Sailing will tell broadcasters which events to “watch” and film.
Sadly that means watching a bunch of Laser dinghies drift over a line travelling at 9knots. Then the race getting cancelled and the film crews putting a holding screen of Marseille Harbour up for hours on end.
Meanwhile, just around the corner, 20 of the world’s best kite racers are travelling at 25 knots plus around a course and putting on a show. Sadly, the powers that be have decided this isn’t a show you want to watch. Even though we do.
It’s a terrible situation for the sport and the athletes. Heads should be rolling, but instead, we’re watching 470s roll about in the bay and more race postponement holding screens.
We were 90% of the way to organising a guerilla live stream from a balcony with a view of the course, but the legalities of doing this and the ferocity with which the IOC protects its rights meant we pulled out at the last minute. I’m genuinely fearful to share the link on my personal page in case the IOC come after me and my business. Thankfully a few kiters with a lot less to lose are doing just this, kudos to them, the stream is on the Hydrofoil Pro Tour YouTube Channel, although they may well have had their equipment confiscated and be in the back of a van by now.
Let’s hope we get to see some action in the coming days, but don’t hold your breath. So far, the Olympics Paris 2024 sucks balls as far as kiteboarding is concerned, and the people at the top need to be asking just what the hell happened and why we have been so quickly sold down the river, especially when the other classes are parked up in the harbour unable to race. The kiters are out there crushing it.
Shame on you, IOC, IKA, World Sailing and all the broadcasters involved.
Tue 6th Aug, 2024 @ 2:38 pm
