Windsurf · Foil era
2024
The iQFoil flies at the Paris Olympics
Forty years after Long Beach, Olympic windsurfing is a foiling discipline; Tom Reuveny and Marta Maggetti win the first iQFoil golds in Marseille.
Starboard iQFoil 95, 220 × 95 cm
In November 2019 the World Sailing Council approved the iQFoil, a one-design foiling board built by Starboard, as the windsurfing equipment for the 2024 Games, replacing the RS:X that had been used since 2008. The Tokyo Games, sailed in 2021, were the last on the RS:X; Paris was the first on a foil.
The board is short and very wide, 220 by 95 centimetres, with a box underneath for a full-carbon foil. In little more than a light breeze the hull lifts clear of the water and the sailor rides on the foil alone, at speeds a Windglider crew could not have imagined. The drawing shows the board from above with its footstraps and the mast track, and from the side with the foil in place.
The Paris 2024 sailing events were held at the Marseille Marina from 28 July to 8 August. Tom Reuveny of Israel won the men’s iQFoil gold and Marta Maggetti of Italy the women’s. Kitesurfing made its Olympic debut at the same regatta in the Formula Kite class, so for the first time two of the three sports on this timeline were flying on foils at the same Games.