Olympics vs SailGP: Decision time for Maud Jayet

SailGP strategist and Paris 2024 fourth-place finisher Maud Jayet has a tough decision to make - and it’s got nothing to do with the Swiss SailGP team’s next shift.

The LA 2028 Olympic Games are on the horizon, but before that, the qualification process looms. For Maud, it clashes with the opening round of SailGP’s seventh season in Hong Kong.

Jayet must pick: Hong Kong SailGP or Olympic qualification?

On the surface, it might sound simple enough - why would you not give yourself the best chance possible for Olympic qualification?

After all, The Foil fans voted in our recent poll and put Olympic Gold 42 percentage points above a SailGP championship win for what they would rather win.

But mark the Swiss team’s recent form, and the very real chance of serious prize money, and Jayet’s conundrum gets a little more complicated.

It’s a two-step process for any athlete wanting to show up in California in 2028. Nation qualification and athlete qualification.

First, an athlete must qualify their nation in their chosen event. This process is centrally managed by World Sailing, the sport’s international governing body.

Qualifying the nation means that the nation will be represented in the event (given the place is accepted), but it doesn’t always mean that that same athlete or team will be selected for the Games - that’s phase two.

In phase two, an athlete or team must qualify themselves through a process outlined by their Member Nation Authority (MNA) or National Olympic Committee (NOC), which pairs athletes to the qualified nation spot.

It’s worth noting that some, usually smaller, nations may well couple athlete or team qualification with World Sailing’s nation qualification process - this is at the discretion of the MNA/NOC. Specific sailor qualification criteria is usually tightly guarded.

Read more about the qualification process on World Sailing's website.

The Hong Kong SailGP event clashes directly with the first available opportunity for anyone competing in a single-handed Olympic event to qualify a spot for their nation.

Hosted in Fortaleza, Brazil, the 2027 World Sailing Championships has racing days from 17 - 23 January for the Women’s Dinghy event. A direct clash with the Hong Kong SailGP from 23 - 24 January.

The World Sailing Championships are the first of three opportunities to qualify a nation’s spot for LA 2028.

The second qualification opportunity is a continental qualification event. The third is the Last Chance Regatta, likely to be hosted early in 2028. The details and dates of both events are still to be announced.

It would be foolish to comment on the athlete qualification process without knowing Switzerland’s specific criteria.

But given Jayet is sixth in the world rankings, at the time of writing, we can assume she would earn a spot as long as Switzerland qualifies a nation spot in the Women’s Dinghy event.

In order to qualify her nation at the first time of asking in Fortaleza, Maud, or any other Swiss national must finish the Championship with no more than 15 other nations ahead on the leaderboard.

At the European continental qualifier, this number reduces to no more than three nations, but excludes any nations already qualified at the World Sailing Championships.

The Last Chance Regatta is open for five more nations to qualify who haven’t already done so.

If Maud opts to compete in SailGP’s 2027 opening round, the Swiss national will leave herself just two opportunities to qualify her nation’s spot in the Women’s Dinghy - unless a compatriot gets the job done in Brazil in Jayet’s absence.

With the dates for those other two qualification opportunities still to be announced, they could realistically also clash with SailGP’s calendar.

On the other side of the coin, if Maud decides to miss the Hong Kong SailGP to compete in her ILCA 6 in Brazil, the Swiss SailGP team will need to look for a replacement strategist.

This is more than likely to be Lorena Schneiter, the only other female on the Swiss team’s registered athlete list.

A two-time Olympian herself, Schneiter is a capable replacement in the role after stepping in as reserve strategist for training ahead of the Perth event earlier this year.

However, that may well be a situation Jayet might want to avoid in light of protecting her role.

Add in the conversation around SailGP prize money, and the lack of such a thing at the World Sailing Championships, and it’s a tricky conundrum.

The Swiss team swept up $160,000 USD in Halifax and were one place off doing the same in Portsmouth.

Despite not knowing how the prize money is divided up within the Swiss team, it’s reasonable to assume the sailing team would receive at least a small portion of that, and there is no doubt that a small portion is larger than the big fat zero you receive from any result at the World Sailing Championships.

Whichever way Jayet turns, something has to give. Chase the Olympic dream in Fortaleza and Schneiter steps into her SailGP seat for the Hong Kong opener.

Stay put with the Swiss and she leaves her LA 2028 hopes hanging on two qualification events that are yet to be dated and could just as easily clash with SailGP further down the line.

There is no clean answer, only a gamble on where the bigger prize lies. Olympic glory or the pull of SailGP’s swelling prize pot? Either way, with the season seven opener creeping closer, Jayet needs to make her call.