Looking ahead to the annual meeting, the Council will be making some very important decisions on equipment for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The ongoing process and the different steps have been discussed with various stakeholders, in particular the IOC at various meetings and occasions. During the visit of the IOC President and various IOC members in Århus, positive feedback was received from their talks with our sailors in terms of the importance of gender equality and mixed sailing in order to connect with youth and attract more participants. I am proud to say that during the time onsite in Århus with our IOC friends, we had the opportunity to learn that World Sailing was clearly aligned with several key IOC priorities including: focusing on gender equality, keeping the sport relevant, encouraging mixed development, enhancing youth engagement. Another positive point was related to our management of our event’s environmental footprint and our focus on sustainability, the impact we have been able to make while keeping costs a minimum is truly impressive. With all this progress being made, it is important that we continue to stay focused. There are many moving pieces, however we
should not succumb to changing our events and equipment process for the 2024 Olympic Games as this will only be adding unnecessary pressure to our 10 Olympic events and to our 350 athlete allocations.
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