On Tuesday, brisk winds blew in from the southeast to power the fleet of Olympic sailing boats racing off the shores of Marseille, France.

With those strong winds, the performances of many of the athletes were forced to change. For the first two days, the wind speed averaged roughly 6 mph, but Tuesday, the wind ranged from 12 to 22 mph. Some sailors tend to be experts in light winds but struggle in heavy winds, and for other sailors, stronger winds are preferred. That contrast was on full display Tuesday.

The results of the New Zealand crew in the men’s skiff class served as a good example. Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie finished 1-3-8-8-1-1 over the first two days in light wind, but Tuesday the pair finished 11-18-17.

The storyline was reversed for New Zealand’s women’s skiff sailors. Jo Aleh and Molly Meech struggled in the light wind with a 15-17-9-17-8 series. Tuesday, however, they shined in the strong wind with impressive finishes of 3-2-1. It should be noted that Aleh won a gold medal at the London Games and a silver medal in Rio in the 470 Class. 

And then, there are sailors who are versatile, and good in all wind good conditions like Great Britain windsurfer Emma Wilson, who finished with a 1-2-1-2 in light wind and ended the day with a 1-1. Wilson slipped back to 17th in the fifth race when she tangled with a few other boats on the starting line and then found a light patch of wind. It was a brief setback proving that she was human and occasionally vulnerable. The 17th will be a discard race on the scoreboard. She rebounded with two firsts to cap the day.

The American men had an encouraging day on the water. Windsurfer Noah Lyons, 23, from Clearwater, Florida, put together a solid 5-1-8-13-12-3 series and stands in fourth place after six races. He is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida and plans to attend graduate school after the Olympics. The U.S. has won windsurfing medals twice: 1992 (Mike Gebhardt) and 1984 (Scott Steele). Lyons has been competitive in both light and strong winds and has a realistic chance of reaching the podium.

In the men’s skiff, former All-American sailors, Ian Barrows (Yale) and Hans Henken (Stanford) are inching up the leaderboard.  They stand fifth and are eight points out of third place. In Tuesday's finale, they finished third. The last American medalists in this class were brothers, Jonathan and Charlie McKee in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

U.S. windsurfer Dominique Stater, 23, earned a silver medal in the Pan Am Games last year and is familiar with international competition having grown up as the daughter of an American diplomat who spent most of his career in South America. In the first seven races, she has placed 11-22-20-6-21-16-DNS and stands in twentieth place out of the 24-boat field. No American has ever won a medal in women’s windsurfing.

In the women’s skiff fleet, Americans Stephanie Roble, 35, and Maggie Shea, 35, are having a challenging series: 7-11-10-3-9-13-15-13-17 in the 20-boat fleet. The women have three more races on Wednesday and need strong finishes to make the top ten medal race. Roble and Shea are seven points out of tenth. 

The foils raced on both a slalom course and a windward leeward course configuration on Tuesday. In the men’s first start, Lyons was the only boat to get away cleanly. The iQFOiL sailors stay well back of the starting line and accelerate up to full speed in the last 20 seconds before the starting signal. The wind suddenly went light and every boat, except Lyons, was late to the line. The American cruised to victory unchallenged by the other 23 boats.

The foiling windsurfers are remarkably fast. In one race, the winner averaged 27 mph and reached the finish line in 13 minutes on a 6-mile course. The sailors are big and need to be strong to handle the sail and yet be able to stay balanced on the board slicing through Marseille’s choppy seas.

The 49ers have one more day of racing prior to the medal race on Thursday. The windsurfers have two more days of sailing before their medal race on Friday. The ILCA 6, ILCA 7, 470, Nacra 17s and formula kites begin racing later this week. Some of the classes had tune-up practice racing Tuesday.

Moderate winds of 10-17 knots are forecasted for the next two days. Will the conditions shake up the standings again? There are sure to be triumphs and disappointments off Marseille as Olympic sailing continues on Wednesday.