Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad. With the exception of 1904 and possibly the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule. The Sailing program of 1996 consisted of a total of ten sailing classes (disciplines). For each class, with the exception of the Soling, eleven races were scheduled from 22 July to 2 August 1996 off the coast of Savannah at the Wassaw Sound. For the Soling ten fleetraces were scheduled followed by a series of matchraces for the top 6 boats of the fleetrace result.

Savannah is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport. It is Georgia's fifth most populous city, with a 2020 U.S. census population of 147,780. The Savannah metropolitan area, Georgia's third-largest, had a 2020 population of 404,798.