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Windsurfer Emma Wilson has every right to rage at the weather and rage at her luck.
Wilson’s form at the Olympic regatta – she won eight of the 14 qualifying races – meant she advanced straight to the three-racer final in Marseille.
Others battled it out to join her while she kicked back on the quayside but when it mattered – the race delayed 24 hours due to light winds on the Mediterranean – she was beaten into bronze by Italy’s Marta Maggetti and Israel’s Sharon Kantor.
When she won the same medal in Tokyo, Wilson was all smiles – but not this time.
At the last two World Championships, she also made the final automatically as the top qualifier – both times she failed to make that dominance count, finishing with silver and bronze.
Windsurfing has a different format to other sailing events, where points carry over to medal races, and Wilson’s week of hard work on the Corniche was erased and it was back to scratch.
“I think I’m done with this sport,” she said. “I think they need to think about people’s mental health, it’s not okay to be put in that position every time.
“I had a 60-point lead at the World Championships, a 30-point lead here, I’m not sure how many times you can come back. It’s obvious I had a disadvantage with this scoring system. You finish top and go straight to the final but the others get the chance to race.
“I just made a mistake on the layline, obviously I hadn’t done a race yet so those girls knew where the layline was, and I just made a mistake.
“Will the medal give me any solace? I think it will, maybe in a week, I don’t know. Right now, it hurts really bad but I’ll be proud when I get on the podium.
“The girls are amazing that I race against. Marta’s an amazing sailor, she’s an amazing friend as well. To be honest it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. I’m really happy for her, but for me, I’m not sure how many times I can be put through that.”
After Tokyo, World Sailing replaced the RS:X windsurfer that Wilson had known her entire life, with the iQFOiL – a faster board that appears to fly above the water rather than glide on it.
It made for thrilling, more close-quarter racing, even in light wind conditions, but it required Wilson to ‘reteach myself the sport’.
After taking time to decide whether she could recommit to another campaign, she went ‘back to school’ knowing it was the only way to upgrade her Tokyo medal in France.
A series of crashes left her requiring surgery, while there were broken bones and torn ligaments in pursuit of mastering the new equipment.
“I just hope I can inspire some kids,” she added. “What I’ve done this week, I’ve shown you can dominate a sport. If I can show them that you work hard and that’s what happens, then that’s a win. I’d love to go home with a gold medal but bronze will have to do.”
Team GB topped the sailing medal table in both Rio and Tokyo and after Wilson’s medal got them off the mark, are well placed in other fleets in Marseille.
Australia’s Matt Wearn is an Olympic and two-time world champion and among the shortest-priced favourites for gold at these Games in the men’s dinghy. He leads the fleet after six of ten races just Great Britain’s Michael Beckett is just behind in second place.
Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics
