Excerpted from ISAF submission 097-10, ISAF changes supporting that a mixed gender multihull event for 2016.:

2-person Mixed Multi-hull Event
• The Commission supports the inclusion of multi-hull as Olympic Equipment as a Mixed Event. Mixed would reflect much of current global participation, and would provide a single-step pathway from the open multi-hull event at the ISAF Youth Worlds to the Olympics. The Commission recommends Equipment trials to select an inexpensive, modern, one-design multihull suitable for elite Mixed sailing that can be expected to become globally available in one to two years. The following paragraphs provide additional commentary on the recommendation for Mixed.
• Gender-based Olympic sailing Events have been introduced gradually, starting 1988, as sailing’s Open Events were being almost exclusively competed for by men due to the men’s strength-to-weight advantage. 2012 will be the first Olympics at which sailing has no Open
Events.
• The gender-based Events introduced were Men and Women, not Mixed. However outside Olympic sailing, a lot of 2-person sailing is Mixed – especially 2-person dinghies and 2-person multi-hull. The Olympic Commission believes that Mixed offers sailing some significant advantages and should be included in the Olympic programme for selected two 2-person Events:

a. it allows sailing to include more types of equipment in its 10 Events;
b. it better reflects sailing as it is practised globally in many parts of the world;
c. it highlights and promotes a key media-appealing differentiator of the sport;
d. it ensures not only gender equality on number of Events, but also number of athletes.

• Including Mixed Multi-hull is seen as the most advantageous way to re-introduce multi-hull into the Olympic Sailing Competition. It provides a natural pathway from the Open Multi-hull event at the ISAF Youth Worlds, and can be expected to increase the proportion of that fleet that sails Mixed at that event. Examining the other options:

a. no multi-hull: this is not supported as the Commission believes that 2-person multi-hull racing should be included
in the Olympic Sailing Competition. It is an inexpensive and exciting branch of the sport that is accessible to most nations and a relatively wide range of sailor physiques, and tests a particular sailing skill;

b. men-only multi-hull: this is not supported as the Commission believes it would be wrong, as sailing seeks to move towards gender equality, to introduce a new Event as
men-only, especially when the event is Open at the ISAF Youth Worlds;

c. men and women multi-hull: this is not supported as the Commission believes that there is not currently sufficient Women-only multi-hull racing taking place globally to merit one of sailing’s 10 Olympic Events. It might also fail to meet the IOC requirement (practised in 35 countries on 3 continents). The Commission believes that new Olympic
Events should reflect sailing that is already an established part of the sport.

• The Commission does not support the view that Mixed is “not a discipline” or “not elite”. Sailing already has a Mixed Event (the 2-Person event in the Paralympics), and the IOC has added mixed tennis for 2012. Multi-hull is currently sailed Mixed by many sailors in many elite competitions – for instance the 2010 Tornado Class World Championships was won by a Mixed crew, as was the 2009 ISAF Youth Worlds multi-hull event. Furthermore, if multi-hull is only Mixed in the Olympics, this Mixed competition will become the premier, elite multi-hull dinghy event, and will provide additional value and differentiation to multi-hull sailing.

• In its 10th December 2009 press release on mixed tennis, the IOC stated: “The inclusion of tennis mixed doubles event ... will bring an added value to the Olympic programme by
providing another opportunity for men and women to compete together on the same field of play.” Mixed sailing will offer similar added value to the IOC.

• The Commission acknowledges that Mixed sailing is not currently common in some countries’ 2-person dinghy sailing – but Olympic decisions influence grass-roots sailing, and the Commission believes that this would change if Mixed is adopted. The Commission has not identified any nations that are today strong in multi-hull sailing that do not have Mixed sailing.

Mixed is also popular in other sports. For instance Badminton supports Mixed Doubles at all age levels, with Eastern Asia dominant. Badminton’s 2010 World Junior Championships had
Mixed Doubles entrants from every continent, and the number of entrants for Mixed Doubles was significantly more than for Boy’s or Girl’s Doubles.