Three more sports reveal Paris Games qualification criteria

Paris 2024 isn't too far away now, and on 26 June the first quota places will be allocated in Triathlon. Three more sports have revealed their qualification procedures since the last update: Sailing, Surfing, and Tennis.

Sailing

Sailing has taken a reduction in quotas from 2020, with 165 athletes per gender (down from 175). There are still ten events. On the men's side, the Windsurfer, Dinghy, and Skiff events survive, but the Dinghy (Heavyweight) and Two Person Dinghy events are gone, to be replaced by a Kite event. On the women's side, the Two Person Dinghy event is replaced by the Kite, which joins the surviving Windsurfer, Dinghy, and Skiff events and there is also a new Mixed Dinghy event to join the Mixed Multihull event. There are ten events in total; four each for men and women and two mixed events.

There will be one boat per NOC per event. The first event worth consideration are the 2023 World Sailing Championships (The Hague, NED, 10-20 Aug 2023) which will qualify a large number of boats: 16 in the Men's/Women's Dinghy, 11 in the Windsurfing, 10 in the Skiff, 9 in the Mixed Multihull and 8 in the other events. The 2024 ILCA World Championships (various locations, dates TBC) will qualify 7 boats each in the Men's and Women's Dinghy event. Various Continental Qualifiers (dates and locations TBC) in 2023 and 2024 will earn one boat per continent in each event, the exception being the Men's and Women's Dinghy events which will have three boats earned in Asia and two in the other continents. In the 2024 Last Chance Regatta (dates and location TBC) five boats will be earned in the Windsurfing and Kite events, four in the Mixed Multihull event and three in all others. For countries in World Sailing's Emerging Nations Programme there will be a separate 2024 Emerging Nations Last Chance Regatta (dates and locations TBC), which will grant one spot in the Men's/Women's Windsurfing and Dinghy events to NOCs that have not qualified in this Sport yet. The hosts are also guaranteed one spot per event (with unused spots being allocated to the Last Chance Regatta) and there will be two spots per gender for Universality decided by the Tripartite Commission.

There are a few differences from 2020, although much remains to be confirmed. However, the system seems similar, and there is no hint of the transition to ranking-based systems seen in other sports.

Surfing

Surfing responds as an additional sport with its two Shortboard events (one for each gender), and with an increased quota too: 24 per gender (at most two per NOC, which could be bumped up to three in certain cases) rather than 20. There is one spot for the host and one Universality place, meaning there are 22 qualification spots per gender. The pathway is different for men and for women. Ten spots for men and eight for women will be earned at the World Surf League Championship Tour (WSL CT) from January-September 2023 (exact dates and locations TBC). Continental representation will come from the 2023 Pan American Games (Santiago, CHI, Oct 20-Nov 5 2023) for the Americas and the May 2023 ISA World Surfing Games (WSG) (exact dates and location TBC) for all other continents: one spot per continent, for a total of five, and five spots for men and seven for women at the 2024 ISA WSG (dates and location TBC). Finally, the highest rated team (that is to say, NOC) at the 2024 ISA WSG and the 2022 ISA WSG (Huntington Beach, USA, Sep 17-24 2022) will earn one spot each, which does not count to the NOC quota meaning that these NOCs can qualify a maximum of three places instead of two.

Quote

"Teahupoo will be a spectacular, magical showcase for our sport in the Olympics. Surfing was a very popular sport in the 2020 Tokyo Games. Olympic Surfing in 2024, will certainly expand on the Tokyo success. We are super excited to share this tangible pathway for surfers to reach their Olympic dreams.

Surfing is such a personal, individual expression of performance that it was really important for us to continue to enable the surfers to win the right to qualify based on their own performances.  For this reason, all qualification places, with a few noted special exceptions, will be made by name.

Providing the winning teams at our World Surfing Games in 2022 and 2024 the opportunity win additional slots, regardless of the 2-per country limit, is an important innovation that will further motivate the top surfing nations to win the ISA Team World Champion Trophy.

This is another epic moment for the sport of Surfing, and for all of us who have dreamt of Olympic surfing and shared in the amazing debut in Tokyo last year. I can’t wait to see how our incredibly talented athletes perform in qualification with the target of becoming the next Olympic medalists in surfing in 2024."

International Surfing Association President Fernando Aguerre

With the addition of those 'team places' notwithstanding as they correspond to the enhanced quota, the system seems mostly the same as 2020.

Tennis

Tennis returns from 2020 with the same events (a Men's and Women's Singles event, and a Men's, Women's, and Mixed Doubles event) and the same quotas (86 per gender). There are three host places and one universality place per gender, with a maximum of six athletes per NOC per gender (a maximum of four in singles, two teams in Men's/Women's doubles and one team in mixed doubles). There will be 64 players per event in Singles. 56 places will be earned from the Rankings of 10 June 2024, there will be one host place, and six "Final Qualification places". Four of these will be earned at continental events: the 2023 Pan American Games will yield two spots, and one each will be earned at the delayed 2022 Asian Games (Hangzhou, CHN, dates TBC) and the 2023 African Games (Accra, GHA, dates TBC). The final two will be reserved for Olympic Gold Medal or Grand Slam winners that have not qualified (confirmed on 12 June 2024). Finally, there will be one universality place.

In Men's/Women's Doubles there are 32 teams each. One place is for the host country, and the remaining 31 are chosen by the rankings. Firstly, the top 10 doubles athletes based on the ranking of 10 June 2024 will qualify (this may be less than 10 teams if one athlete's partner is also in the top 10, or more if a few athletes are tied for 10th). The remaining spots until the 24th team (or more if the quota of 86 places is not yet reached) will be filled based on Combined Doubles Ranking. Any other places will be based on ranking, but chosen with priority to teams with both athletes in the singles event. In Mixed Doubles, there are sixteen teams: one host country team, and fifteen teams selected based on Combined Doubles Ranking of 10 June 2024.

This is basically the same as the Tokyo 2020 system, except for the fact that the continental places will be won directly at events.

Finally, we turn attention to Canoe Sprint. In the last update, we reported that the document was taken offline quickly, but it has now been reuploaded with some edits. Basically, one spot has been cut from the Canoe Single and Kayak Single events for both genders, and this means one extra boat in the Canoe Double events. All changes have come out of the World Championships table.

This latest update means that just five sports have to release systems: Aquatics, Athletics, Football, and Table Tennis in their entirety, and Cycling which has revealed the system for Mountain Bike but not the other disciplines.

Patrick Green

Writer, Totallympics News