When New Zealand’s Justina Kitchen hits the water for the Paris Olympics next month in kite foiling, the 35-year-old will compete with an impact vest, a hook knife and a crash helmet.
The safety equipment is a requirement for kite foiling, a sport making its Olympic debut. It is considered the fastest sailing class, where competitors are harnessed to a large kite and routinely reach 48km/h (30mph) on a board that appears to hover over the water on a thin foil.
