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Reuters
Reuters
Sport

Factbox: Key facts about sailing at the 2020 Tokyo Games

FILE PHOTO: Giant Olympic Rings are installed at the waterfront area, with the Rainbow Bridge in the background, ahead of an official inauguration ceremony, six months before the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo, Japan January 17, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics includes 33 sports. Sailing pits athletes against the natural elements as they compete on the open water.

Here are some key facts about Olympic sailing:

Introduced: Sailing was introduced to Olympic competition in 1900, becoming one of the first four sports in which women competed in the Games.

Events: There are five men's events, four women's and one mixed event involving a crew of men and women, the Nacra 17, which was introduced at the 2016 Rio Games.

Olympic sailing involves the use of a variety of watercraft, including the one- and two-person dinghy, windsurfer, skiff and multihull, competing in a triangle-shaped course designed to expose competitors to wind from three different directions.

Technique: Competitors compete against each other but must also make split-second decisions based on wind speed and direction, tide movement and water conditions. Each event is scored over a series of races giving sailors the chance to bounce back from a poor performance.

Top performers: Britain has long been the most dominant country in the sport, with Team GB athletes taking home 28 gold medals since the sport was introduced to the Olympics.

Sources: Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, International Olympic Committee, World Sailing, Team GB

Graphic: Sailing, https://graphics.reuters.com/OLYMPICS-2020-SAILING/0100B5D43G6/SAILING.jpg

(Reporting by Amy Tennery, editing by Ed Osmond)

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