Van Aanholt and Duetz were in the lead for almost the entire race and seemed to be heading for victory in the medal race without any problems. However, they seemed to give away a medal at the last minute by missing the finish line. After a long wait, it turned out that they had finished correctly after all.
Van Aanholt and Duetz started the medal race, in which double points were distributed, in second place. The Dutch sailors had 1 point more than the numbers 1 Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon from France. The French had to settle for bronze in the end, behind Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler from Sweden.
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Van Aanholt and Duetz were in a fierce battle with Steyaert and Picon from the first races on Sunday. The Dutch women took the lead on the first day, after which the French duo took over the first place on Monday. Van Aanholt and Duetz hit back a day later, but saw the French women take the lead again on Wednesday. The planned medal race on Thursday was postponed to Friday due to lack of wind.
Second medal
For the 31-year-old Duetz it is the second Olympic medal, after she won a bronze medal in Tokyo with Annemiek Bekkering three years ago. Van Aanholt (26) participated in the Games for the first time in Marseille, where the Olympic sailing tournament is held.
The gold medal follows multiple world titles for both women. Duetz was world champion four times, Van Aanholt was the best in the world three times. Two of the titles were won together, in 2022 and 2024.
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From joy to disbelief to euphoria
Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz went through a series of different emotions in the minutes before and after the chaotic finish of the medal race in the 49erFX class, before they were sure they had gold. “I had already given Annette a hug in the last bit towards the finish, because I thought it had worked out,” Van Aanholt admitted.
Van Aanholt and Duetz seemed to win the medal race easily, but they didn’t realize that the finish was somewhere else. By switching quickly they still finished well, but it took a long time before clarity came.
“The despair only came after the finish, that you don’t dare to believe that it was good enough,” Duetz looked back. “All the media boats also went to the other boats and they were also very happy. That also made us a bit disbelieve. Did we really let a medal slip through our fingers, after all these years,” Van Aanholt added.
“The coach came with his rule book to check the track. It seemed to be fine then, but we still couldn’t believe it. Eventually he went to the race committee to check it not double, but quadruple and when he came back we could believe it,” said Van Aanholt. “The emotions were very close together.”
Van Aanholt also became emotional during the interviews afterwards. She admitted that the two sailors had not said in the run-up to the Games that they were going for gold. “We did that once, on the first day of the race. We said to each other that we really wanted to win. Normally we are more focused on the process. It is now sinking in, we have won.”
“We really did it together. If one of us had been a bit off-focus or had gotten angry, we probably wouldn’t have won. But it was precisely because of that great teamwork that we succeeded,” says Van Aanholt.
