World Sailing Championships, SSL Gold Cup, Rio 2026

Text: Tom Sundman (translated from Swedish)

The Football World Cup has just begun. Although Finland isn’t taking part, it has generated a huge buzz. Soon it will also be time for the Gold Cup in sailing. The Finnish team will be competing in the qualifiers for a place in the final, starting on 14 July. There has been little publicity surrounding Finland’s involvement. Nor has the full team been published on the SSL website. Estonia and Lithuania recently qualified for the final. Here on the HSS website, we will be following the qualifying races in July and the final itself in November. Below is some information about what the event involves and which sailing nations are taking part.
The qualifying races have been held in Switzerland on Lake Neuchâtel, near Geneva. The final races will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to which the boats are being transported. You can follow the races on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SSLGoldCup/ or on the website https://nationscircuit.worldofsailors.com

The Finnish team’s journey to Rio

Although Finnish sailors are not among the world’s elite (Oskari Muhonen is 136th), we have enjoyed success at Olympic level. We now hope that it is time to raise our ambitions in the Gold Cup.
The Finnish team ‘Northern Magic’, with Oskar Muhonen at the helm, has provided the following basic information about Finnish sailing:

The Estonian and Lithuanian teams have already qualified for Rio

Photos of the Finnish team from the SSL Gold Cup Final races in Rio in 2023 and from Neuchâtel this year.

Below is the full list of teams in the 2026 SSL Gold Cup

On the left are the countries that still need to qualify, and on the right are those that have already qualified, either earlier this year or via their international ranking. Of the Nordic countries, Denmark and Sweden are through. Finland will begin their qualifying campaign on 14 July, whilst Norway narrowly missed out. Below are all the participants marked on the map.