2024 Paris Olympics - Jamie Sutherland

In July 2024 Jamie Sutherland attended the 2024 Paris Olympic games as a judge at the sailing event. As Paris is an inland city, the sailing was held in Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea in the South of France.

He was appointed as a judge on the International Jury for the Olympics following his experience on the Jury at the 2023 World Sailing World Championships in the Netherlands. There were 24 judges on the Jury at the Olympics, all from different countries. For most, English was their second language. Jamie found it interesting working with them and coping with the cultural differences and excitable personalities. Each day the judges were rostered in pairs to do on the water judging. After racing they dealt with protest hearings, 98 in total during the event. On most days there were 3 panels of 5 judges working simultaneously. On Jamie’s busiest day he attended 5 protest hearings that ran back-to-back, finishing about 10.30pm. It made for long days. The event was 14 days long, at the end of which, Jamie said, everyone was very tired but still had to remain very focused.

There is an enormous amount at stake at the Olympics with sailors under a lot of pressure to perform well. As such, protests are more common than at other events, where a sailor may let an incident slide rather than lodge a protest. More often than not, the protesting boat won the protest. In addition to on water incidents, there were a lot of measurement or procedural protests lodged by the Technical Committee. Almost all resulted in scoring penalties. Jamie was amazed how many sailors were penalised for not knowing the rules and procedures at such an important event, for instance, bringing the wrong battens for measurement or arriving late at the measuring shed.

Jamie was assigned to the IQ Foiling Board and the Foiling Kite courses for several days. This was the first time he had judged kites on the water. He said their speed was very fast, up to 30 knots. The kites travelled too fast for the judge boats to keep up, so they just watched the start and finish of the races. It was a similar story with the IQ Foiling Boards. He was also on the water judging the ILCAs during their qualifying series and the final medal races for the IQ Foiling Boards, 470 mixed dinghy and Nacra catamaran.