Association between order during first upwind leg and finishing place of race in sailing event of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Abstract

It remains unclear whether and how the sailing order during the first upwind leg is related to the finishing place of the race in high-level sailing competitions such as the Olympic Games. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the associations in all ten classes in the sailing event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. All data were collected from publicly available online GPS sources. The sailing orders during the first upwind leg were calculated for every 10% phase from the start to the arrival at the first windward mark. Then, for each phase in each class, the percentage of the number of races in which the correlation coefficient between the sailing order at each phase during the first upwind leg and the finishing place was greater than 0.7 was calculated. The percentage of the number of races with a high correlation tended to increase from 10% to 100% phase of the first upwind leg. In several races, the sailing order just after the start (i.e., at 10% phase) correlated with the finishing place of the race. These findings suggest that a superior sailing position during the first upwind leg plays a crucial role in finishing well in the race.