Kiteboarding is chosen for the Olympics

Six years after the sailing federation had voted kiteboarding into the Rio Games and out again, it tried once more. On Monday 14 May 2018, at World Sailing’s mid-year meeting in London, the Council approved a new event for the Paris 2024 Olympics: mixed kiteboarding.

The first plan was a team event. Countries would enter a man and a woman, racing as a relay in which they alternated laps.

The format changed three years later. On 10 June 2021 the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee approved separate men’s and women’s kiteboarding events. They replaced the mixed kite event and the mixed offshore sailing event, which was dropped from the Games. The class would be Formula Kite, raced on hydrofoils.

Paris 2024 would have two kite events, with individual medals for men and women, and the racing would be held at Marseille.