Double Olympic bronze medallist Emma Wilson launches LA 2028 campaign at the 2025 iQFOiL Games on the Canary Island of Lanzarote
Christchurch’s double Olympic bronze medallist will return to the sport at the 2025 iQFOiL Games in Playa Blanca on the Canary Island of Lanzarote.
The games will be the first time Wilson has competed since dramatically stating she was “done with the sport” after heartbreakingly missing out on a gold medal after dominating the iQFOiL racing.
Britain’s number one ranked windsurfer entered the winner-takes-all Olympic finale off the back of a dominant qualification campaign in which she amassed a 30-point lead, but a slow start left her in her rivals’ wake.
The 2025 iQFOiL Games is the first big event of 2025 and arguably the LA 2028 cycle, but the talk of the boat park centres on a change to the sails used, with women downsizing to a 7.3m sail and men to an 8m sail. The changes have been brought in to make the sport more accessible to athletes of differing body types and create a fairer playing field.
“I guess it’s a good chance to race on our new sail”, said the former Ballard School pupil Emma Wilson. “We only got it a few weeks ago, so everyone is new to it, which is kinda fun.”
After missing the European Championships in October last year following the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Wilson returns to the start line to kickstart her LA 2028 campaign.
Wilson added: “After the Olympics, I had a big break, which I needed. Since January, I’ve been back training with the British Sailing Team’s iQFOiL women’s squad, and it’s been fun. I’m enjoying it, and for me, that’s what I want to keep doing.”
Wilson went into the Olympic final guaranteed to win Great Britain’s first sailing medal in Paris after dominating the opening series of the Marseille coast. However, she had to settle for bronze in the final as Italy’s Marta Maggetti won gold, and Israel’s Sharon Kantor took silver.
Wilson had finished well clear at the top of the standings after winning eight of the 14 preliminary races, coming outside the top three just once, but was third in the one-off final.
Windsurfing, known as the iQFOiL category, and kitesurfing are the only sailing classes to adopt a winner-takes-all medal race.
At the last World Championships, also in Lanzarote, Wilson won 15 of the 20 opening races but finished with silver behind Kantor in the final.
The games start today (Wednesday, 29th January) and will conclude on Sunday. Follow the British Sailing Team’s social media channels to track Wilson’s progress.
