The Olympic sailing classes have been used in the sport of Sailing/Yachting during the Olympic Summer Games since 1896. Since then, 46 different classes have been used.

Over a period of more than 112 years, in a sport that uses complex technical equipment, classes will be discontinued for use at the Olympics. Reasons for discontinuation of a class varied from economical, logistical and technological to emotional and even political. Some of the discontinued classes remain very strong International - or National classes. Others filled a niche in a specific area like sailing schools or local club racing. Some faded away.

The "Former Olympic Sailing Classes", together with their crews form an important and significant part of the history of sailing in general and Olympic Sailing in particular. These tables give an overview of the classes and when they were used for Olympic sailing.

• ( • ) Open Class event (Male and Female)
• ( M ) Male event
• ( F ) Female event
• ( Fm ) Female Matchrace event
• ( Of ) Open with a minimum of one female
• ( C ) Combined open event (Fleetrace and Matchrace)
• ( Mix ) Mixed (e.g. One Male & One Female Crew)
• ( H ) Heavyweight Dinghy event
• ( P ) High Performance Dinghy event
• ( VIP ) Vintage Inter Pares event (sailoff between the winners of each Vintage Yachting event)

• Sailing at the Summer Olympics
• Sailboarding at the Olympics
• ISAF Sailing World Championships
• International Sailing Federation
• Vintage Yachting Games

• International Sailing Federation
• ISBN 978-90-78440-23-9^{[full citation needed]}