World Sailing President Quanhai Li praises preparations for Paris 2024

The Paris 2024 Test Event concluded on Sunday with many of the world’s best sailors competing across all of the Olympic classes at the venue on the edge of the city, just 5km from the world-famous Vieux-Port.

In what was very close to a full test for the sport at Paris 2024, athlete numbers were actually higher than they will be in August next year when 330 athletes will attempt to win medals in one of the 10 events.

Quanhai Li, President of World Sailing, arrived in Marseille having attended the 420 and 470 Junior European Championships in Gdynia, Poland, as well as the Grand Finale of the Ocean Race in Genoa.

Together with World Sailing Chief Executive Officer David Graham, the President met with competitors, Paris 2024 officials, World Sailing staff and volunteers, and Member National Authority officials to discuss their views of the ongoing work to prepare for the Olympics.

Li said, “Marseille is passionate about sailing, and I believe the Marseille Marina will be one of the great venues of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“The journey is only three hours from Paris by train, and fans who visit will experience fantastic sport in a fantastic city.

“It was wonderful to see preparations going so well – the venue is being transformed and will provide a superb legacy for French sailing after the Olympics.

“Last week was a test event whose purpose was primarily to test the venue, the team or the operations on the water including sport, security and medical amongst others. The feedback received from the athletes was extremely positive and World Sailing is confident that the Paris 2024 regatta will be a success for the sport and for the Games.”

Paris 2024 President, Tony Estanguet added, “We were delighted with the overwhelming success of our first major test event for the Paris 2024 Games.

“Marseille, with its changing wind directions, the low tides and good visibility, has proved to be a perfect site to host sailing competitions and we look forward to a repeat, in 2024, of the fantastic sporting performances we saw over the last 10 days.

“We equally look forward to the strong legacy that these Games will leave for the city. The nautical base that will remain after the Games will provide the people of Marseilles with a very fine site for sailing – for amateurs all the way through to elite athletes.

“I want to take to take this opportunity to thank all of the different national and international authorities who contributed to success of this event, including of course our friends from World Sailing.”