Olympicados - The Danish Drama Edition

It looked so very good yesterday. The danish 49'er was so far ahead that it just had to get through the medal race today and the gold was theirs. Then the worst thing possible (almost) happened. Their mast broke on the way out to the startline.

The Danes sail back in to try and fix the the mast but it's hopeless

Then the most fantastic happened. The Croatian team were packing up their 49'er as they were not competing in the medal race. Showing great sportsman ship in the spirit of the Games they ran over and offered the Danes their 49'er boat. The boat was rigged and off went the Danes just 5 seconds before the cut off time.

The Danes fighting for their medal in the Croatian boat

They were quickly back in the game, fighting their way through the waves and horrid weather. Passing a few of the competitors on the way. Despite having started much later than the other 49'ers. Braving the weather and sailing with a determination and Danish courage they got closer and closer to the finish line.

The Danes having a bit of trouble on the way much like the other boats


The sea around Beijing was not behaving itself as the Danes fought their way past the other boats

I was a very intense race and in the end the Danes made it past the finish line and were announced by the ref. as the GOLD winners.


After getting back on land official protests were issued by amongst others, the Spanish team (who, if Denmark was disqualified would win the Gold) and the Danish team themselves. Other teams also issued protests.


The protests by all teams including the Danes were that the weather conditions were too horrid and that the medal race should be sailed again in the morning. This protest was refused by the committee along with a few other protests about the Danes leaving the start line too late. Now, we are waiting for the Spanish protest to be solved.


The Spanish team protested the Danes use of the Croatian 49'er. It has never happened before ever, that a team has sailed in a boat that did not officially belong to the nation sailing it. Normally in these cases a "measure man" would have to go and evaluate the boat to see if it was fit to sail but this didn't happen because there was no time for that. The "measure man" has afterwards checked the Croatian boat which was alright. Still there are also the issues that the Danish team did not fly the Danish flag and there was no camera in the boat as that had been removed after the race yesterday. The committee was going to rule on it today but the decision has been postponed until Monday (tomorrow).


If the Danes are disqualified from the race they will be 4th. Which is the worst placement in the Games.


However, in this major drama we forget all about the reason why the Danes still have a shot in hell to get the gold. The CROATIAN team and their incredible sportsmanship. They should get an award for that. Like at beauty pagents there is the Miss Congeniality award. There should be the same at the Olympics because what they did was just amazingly generous. I love Croatia!


What Petar Cupac and Pavle Kostov did was just so nice and I can't do this post without a shout out to my Croatian Homies!

Petar Cupac and Pavle Kostov looking good on their 49'er

Team photo of the Croatian 49'er team