Richard Branson is not happy with ISAF

Fonte: Vsail.info

It certainly is no secret that Richard Branson, the extravagant billionaire and founder of the Virgin Group, is a big kitesurfing enthusiast. He has been an avid kitesurfer for almost ten years and a photo of him kitesurfing with a naked female model holding on his back was a great publicity stunt. Last July he even entered the Guinness record book by becoming the oldest person, at the age of 61, to successfully kitesurf the English Channel. The day before that, his son Sam had set the absolute record for the fastest cross-Channel kitesurf.

Given his passion for that sport and his personal clout, it shouldn’t come as a surprise either to read a report in the Spanish press that he was also the key person behind the push to make kitesurf an Olympic sport. What is a surprise though, always according to the report, is that he had chosen Venezuela’s Teresa Lara and Spain’s Gerardo Seeliger as his lobbyists, most probably in order to convince the Latin American countries to vote in favor of kitesurf.

Up to last week Lara was one of ISAF’s seven vice-presidents and according to the report she was promoting the creation of an international kitesurf training center in the Spanish city of Santander, home city of both Seeliger and Gerardo Pombo, president of the Spanish Sailing Federation. Seeliger was destined to head that training center, according to the report.

Lara didn’t vote in representation of Venezuela but as Vice President while Seeliger voted in representation of Spain, Portugal and Andorra. After the votes were made public the Venezuela Sailing Federation sent ISAF a letter, vigorously opposing Lara’s vote while the Spanish Sailing Federation issued a press release, claiming that Seeliger’s vote was erroneous. He was meant to vote in favor of windsurf but got confused and voted instead in favor of kitesurf…

In fact, three “Hispanic” votes, Lara’s, Seeliger’s and Hector Duval’s from the Dominican Republic were crucial and swung the balance in favor of kitesurf by 19 to 17. The rest is well known, windsurfers fought a tough battle in the six months following the May 2012 vote and managed to reclaim the place in the Olympics at kitesurfing’s expense.

The report doesn’t cite any credible source to substantiate its claims but if it is indeed correct it’s puzzling how a business genius such as Branson wasn’t able to find better lobbyists… He should have called Ernesto Bertarrelli to learn what happens when one gets involved with the Spanish Sailing Federation…

In my opinion though, the real question we should ask isn’t whether one discipline or the other should be in the Olympics. The real question should be about the decision process on such fundamental issues and why should sailing be changing disciplines so often. Ask the three Spanish girls that won the first and last Olympic gold medal in women’s match racing or the Brazilian Sailing Federation that bought six Elliot 6 yachts and doesn’t know what to do with them…


Richard Branson enters the Guinness book of records by becoming, at 61, the oldest person to cross the English Channel on a kitesurf

This is what Richard Branson wrote on his blog the day ISAF reinstated windsurf as an Olympic discipline:


A sad day for one of the best entertainment sports in the world today as kitesurfing has been removed from the Olympic programme for Rio 2016.

Windsurfing has reclaimed its place in the Olympics at kitesurfing’s expense, after the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) voted to reinstate it.

It is a huge disappointment for all the kitesurfers worldwide who have been training hard since it was announced in May that kitesurfing was going to be in the Rio Olympics. What a shame too for all the windsurfers who spent the last year training to become kitesurfers.

The ISAF have misled everybody and been very short-sighted in making this knee-jerk decision. Their original decision was the right one and a brave one, although my own feeling is that there is room for both sports in the Olympics. If they had to drop anything it should have been one of the less exciting sailing races, which really don’t capture the public’s imagination.

Kitesurfing is one of the greatest spectator sports around, pitting man against the elements. After a magnificent summer, it leaves the Olympics the poorer for this decision.

On a personal note, I have been pulling together a British Virgin Islands kitesurfing team to participate in Rio 2016. Quite a few of those people had switched over from widnsurfing to kitesufing and actually ended up enjoying it more. There is also a great Brtitish kitesurfing team already hard at work too. A bitter blow for everybody involved.