2024 Olympics: Laser Slalom proposed as a mixed-gender event – a relay, or add the scores together o

SARASOTA, FL USA (#1122) – Mixed-gender slalom racing was proposed today at the Events Committee meeting of World Sailing. Yes, mixed-gender slalom racing, in Lasers or similar. Since 1974 a Laser Slalom (not mixed-gender, although open to both) has been hosted by St Francis Yacht Club in the reliably windy and iconically beautiful waters of San Francisco Bay. Here is the video presented at the Events Committee today, with thanks to Tracy Usher (USA, an avid Laser sailor and particle physicist at Stanford University's Linear Accelerator Laboratory), and our good friend Chris Ray, (StFYC and BSYC) for forwarding the link to your Ed....

Update (1025 PDT Thursday): In the hour since we posted this, there has been a torrent of reaction pro and con. We will cover it more fully on tomorrow's "TGIF with TFE" live webcast (1300 PDT, as always on our SI Facebook page). In the meantime, please know that the aforementioned Tracy Usher is in Sarasota in his capacity as President of the International Laser Class Association. He kindly emailed to say, "It should also be said that the submission does not specify the class. Obviously, we would LIKE the event to be held in Lasers but this is more a submission on format and if World Sailing were to choose a different class then we would accept it. Finally, it is worth noting that there are several slalom events being planned for next year including in Australia, San Francisco again and between the Men’s and Women’s Laser Worlds in Japan this summer." Read a copy of the formal submission here. –TFE

What's your reaction to this proposal? Is it a viable Olympic sailing event for 2024?