World Rankings need to be reset

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
The World Sailing Rankings for Olympic Classes are administered by World Sailing, and exist because, well, people love rankings. Golf has rankings. Tennis has rankings. It’s cool to say “I am #1 in the world.”

The rankings website reports how there exists a World Sailing Rankings Working Party that annually meets in November to review the method of calculation of the rankings and to grade events to be included in the Rankings. I wonder what they talked about last November, because the rankings could not be any more irrelevant than right now.

Since each team counts their best six results over the previous 12 months, what follows the Olympic Games is a reshuffle. Competitors not selected for Paris 2024 may have paused their schedule. Or top teams have moved on from Olympic competition. Or they have changed partners.

The Fleet Rankings are calculated and published approximately nine times a year, depending on the calendar of events, and were released on April 8 following the 2025 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca in Mallorca, Spain. The hope is for the rankings to reflect reality in three years prior to LA 2028. Fingers crossed!