This week sees the start of the Youth Olympic games with the Sailing being held at the National Sailing Centre Singapore. Sailing has been an Olympic sport since 1900 so it makes sense that there is sailing at the Youth Olympics. This will see the sailing contested in the single handed dinghy the Byte (a class in which I won the World Championships in 2008).

The reason the contest which is for both boys and girls (racing in separate fleets) is being sailed in Bytes rather than in the Laser Radial is the age and size of the sailors. The Youth Olympics is for sailors under 16 (so I guess it could really be called the Junior Olympics) whereas the Youth Worlds (raced in Laser Radials) is for under 19 sailors who will typically be bigger and heavier.

In preparation for this event I have coached the representative from Norway, Germany, Bermuda and Ireland to mention a few. A photo album of the last training camp I ran may be found here: http://jonemmettsailing.co.uk/index.php?mact=Album,mec8c1,default,1&mec8c1albumid=1&mec8c1returnid=66&page=66