Throughout history sailing has been instrumental in the development of civilization, affording humanity greater mobility than travel over land, whether for trade, transport or warfare, and the capacity for fishing.

Sailing (also known as yachting until 2000) refers to using sailboats for sporting purposes and has been one of the Olympic sports since the Games of the I Olympiad, held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Despite being scheduled in the first Olympic program, the races were canceled due to severe weather conditions. Apart from the 1904 Summer Olympics, sailing has been present in every edition of the Olympic Games.

Over time, different classes of boat featured at the Olympics. Initially, the classes were specified in tons, then later in meters, feet or generic names. For the discontinued classes, the Vintage Yachting Games were introduced in 2008.

Until 1988, sailing was a gender-independent sport. Even in 1900, several women participated at the Olympic sailing regattas. In 1988, the first exclusive women's sailing event was introduced. Most of the Olympic sailing competitions were done in what is called a fleet race format. At some Olympics, however, was also the match race format, or a mixed fleet/match race format. Great Britain leads the Olympic sailing medal ranking table.

Numerical denomination and date surrounded by geometric patterns and Southern Cross.

Crux is a constellation located in the southern sky in a bright portion of the Milky Way, and is the smallest but one of the most distinctive of the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for cross, and it is dominated by a cross-shaped or kite-like asterism that is commonly known as the Southern Cross.