Spain already has its representatives for Paris 2024

Following the last observation regatta, the Princess Sofia Trophy, the Olympic Preparatory Committee has announced the names of the athletes selected to represent Spain at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in the qualifying classes that had not yet completed their selection process: Ana Moncada in ILCA 6, Pilar Lamadrid in iQFOiL Women and Joaquín Blanco in ILCA 7.

This proposal from the Olympic Preparation Committee has already been presented to the RFEV Board of Directors and, once approved, will be passed on to the Spanish Olympic Committee for final ratification.

In the selection of Pilar Lamadrid from Seville as the representative in iQFOiL Women, the Olympic Preparation Committee concludes that she is the best national sailor in the class, both for her fifth place in the World Championship and for her position ahead of the other Spanish sailors in the Princess Sofia Trophy.

Regarding the agenda for the next few months, Lamadrid comments: "We still have the Olympic Week in Hyères at the end of April and a continuous back and forth to Marseille to continue training and iron out the last details to be able to give it all in Marseille and return home with a good result".

In the election of the Andalusian Ana Moncada as representative in ILCA 6, the Olympic Preparation Committee has valued both her role in the classification of the class for the Games at the World Championship last January, as well as the results obtained by the sailor from Malaga during the selection period.

And with regard to the road that remains to be traveled until the Olympic Games, the Malaga sailor stated that "in the coming months we will have to make a final effort, but I trust in the planning to polish the last details and achieve a good result at the Olympic Games".

The appointment of the Canarian athlete Joaquín Blanco to ILCA 7 is endorsed by the fact that he is the only Spanish representative who has managed to be in the top 10 of a world championship during the entire Olympic campaign with an eighth place. For the Olympic Preparatory Committee it is very important to note that the level of Joaquín Blanco and Joel Rodríguez has been very similar throughout the campaign, which is why the two established observation races have been analyzed in detail. In the 2024 World Championship, the level shown by all the Spanish sailors was much lower than usual in other international events, so that race has not been taken into account in this decision. In the second observation race the results were more similar to the level shown in previous events, with Joaquín Blanco 15th overall and 13th country and Joel Rodríguez 18th and 15th country.

In this case, Xisco Gil stresses the equality of the sailors during the selection period: "In the ILCA 7 class, the two main sailors, Joaquín Blanco and Joel Rodríguez, have shown a very similar level at all times, being among the top 15 in the world in almost all international competitions. In the choice of Joaquín Blanco, the Committee has valued his progression and the results obtained".

Following this proposal by the Olympic Preparatory Committee, the nine classes that have qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have been assigned the athletes who will make up the Spanish Olympic sailing team, with the Men's Formula Kite class still pending classification. This class has one last chance to qualify in the Hyéres Week to be held between the 21st and 27th of April.

With nine classes qualified for the Olympic Games, Spain is among the main international sailing powers, and the team will be looking to repeat in Hyères the full number of classes achieved in Tokyo 2020.