Talent abounds at the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup
by America's Cup Media 4 Oct 2024 16:52 BST
4 October 2024
Press conference - Puig Women's America's Cup Regatta © David Maynard /
www.alleycatphotographer.com
Excitement has been building in Barcelona for what is expected to be the closest of regattas with the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup attracting the world's greatest women sailors for the first ever staging of this all-female America's Cup.
Today the skippers from the 12 competing teams - six America's Cup squads and six Invited Teams from Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain - had an early-morning photoshoot at the Historic Building of the University of Barcelona before facing the world's media at the opening Press Conference.
The spotlight is very much on these athletes, all excited by the opportunity that the Puig Women's America's Cup is affording them as a pathway to the major teams and the AC75 of the America's Cup.
Silvia Mas, skipper of Sail Team BCN opened the Press Conference saying: "For me, of course it is a pleasure to have the first Women's America's Cup here in Barcelona. We are super happy to have our family and our friends here supporting us. There is great warmth."
Hannah Mills, double Olympic gold medallist and skipper of Athena Pathway typified the excitement saying: "This is such an opportunity for women to get experience in these boats. That experience gap is real, and we've all raced Olympic boats but this foiling era of sailing there is very little opportunity and experience with women sailors and this, really for me, marks a huge step forward."
Mills spoke about the skills-gap and was positive about the Puig Women's America's Cup being a stepping stone to the future, saying: "This regatta is such a step in bridging that gap and really showcasing to the world what female sailors can do and we all feel that responsibility sat here to demonstrate that. We need to make this event the biggest success we can, talk about it, shout about it, tell everyone we know what's going on and why it's important to gain traction going forward and hopefully whoever wins the America's Cup, sees this as a huge part of it going forward as well."
What's at stake for these teams is a ticket to the big-time, with all the senior America's Cup teams looking out for the generational talent of female athletes emerging in the global foiling scene. Manon Audinet, skipper of the Orient Express L'Oral Racing Team, summed up what's at stake saying: "It's what we've been missing for a while now, having the chance to sail on these boats. It is just the beginning now and we are getting more experience and I think we all want to sail on the AC75 for the next campaign but, for myself, I want to be involved in this kind of project only if I deserve it."
Audinet is confident for the future: "Now we are just getting more experience and I hope that soon we are going to be good enough to share the project with the other guys but it's just perfect what is happening now. We are going to have more women involved in the America's Cup over the next event and I can't wait to see women on the big boats for the next one."
And this sentiment was echoed by Olivia Price, silver medalist and skipper of Andoo Team Australia saying: "It's exhilarating to be able to be doing these sorts of speeds on such amazing foiling craft and with the best women sailors in the world - it is, honestly, surreal."
And Price continued: "It is the first step, hopefully, to continue women's racing and to create that pathway for youth and women sailors coming through. It still gives me goose bumps to be able to say we are part of history. This is the first Women's America's Cup, of course we have had women involved in the past, but not one event for ourselves where we are racing as equals all together."
The fleet is adorned with Olympic medallists with some of the most decorated yachtswomen of all time across the teams. In total there are some seven Gold, ten Silver and four Bronze medalists across the two fleets, evidencing the depth of talent on display at the Puig Women's America's Cup.
After success in the UniCredit Youth America's Cup, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team are riding high and their Women's team are looking to emulate the success. Giulia Conti, skipper of the Italian team spoke about their preparations, saying:
"We feel a lot of support from the main team. Seeing the Youth Team winning was a good moment for us to realise that all the hard work we did together this past few months worked out really well. It was super cool to watch them winning and I had tears in my eyes when they crossed the finish line."
Conti commented on the recent practice sessions saying: "We have had some good racing in the practice sessions and now we need to try to repeat that by going out there tomorrow, be focused, but mostly just enjoy because racing these boats is amazing. It is the best racing I have ever done for sure."
Preparations have been intense. Make no mistake, this is the regatta that every female sailing athlete wants to win and the competition is expected to be fierce in both the America's Cup and Invited Teams groupings.
Talking about the impact of the racing, Isabelle Bertold, skipper of Concord Pacific Racing commented: "It's the biggest stage in sailing, being out on the water sharing the course with the AC75s and we're going to have just as many people tune in to watch us, it's not just the five- or eight-year-old girls who are going to be able to have a female role model in the sport but it's also the commercial side.
"We've seen more and more data over the past two years that women's sport has some of the most engaged fans and that drives sponsorship revenues for the teams as well and drums up even more support. I think this is just the start and we are going to see women's sailing and women's sport progress and at a rapid pace."
Bertold is itching to get racing, saying: "On our side of the pool I think there's less experience on the boats so it's going to be about keeping it simple and learning as quickly as we can but my biggest take away is that the racing looked really fun so I can't wait for our first race."
What we're about to see unfold is two rounds of top-level fleet racing, followed by a match-racing final where only the finest will come out on top. The Puig Women's America's Cup format is brutal and rewards consistency, accuracy and execution of the highest order, with team-work and communication absolutely vital to succeed in the rapier-fast AC40 fleet of fully equalised yachts.
Let's look at the form guide going into the regatta...
AMERICA'S CUP TEAMS
Where the winners will emerge from in this group is a fascinating sporting conundrum with several teams eyeing the top spots - none more so than Emirates Team New Zealand and the British Athena Pathway teams.
These two have brought in serious Olympic firepower with the Kiwi team featuring Jo Aleh - a gold and silver medallist - whilst the British are led by Hannah Mills, a double gold medallist as well as a silver medal holder. These two global superstars of the sport will bring the edge for certain but it's their colleagues that could prove to be crucial to success. Both teams have Olympic and World Championship pedigree aplenty aligned with hours on the water and in the simulator.
Another team that everyone is watching closely is Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli who have brought in the four-time Olympian, Giulia Conti, to lead their efforts. The Italian Women's team trained hard over weeks-long sessions in Cagliari, Sardinia and since being in Barcelona have impressed, working with high-class input from their Youth team - recently crowned UniCredit Youth America's Cup champions - and the senior America's Cup team. Talk to any of the Women's teams and the Italians are right there among the favourites.
However, throughout the other America's Cup teams there will be serious talent on display. Alinghi Red Bull Racing are fielding a well-drilled team, hand selected, who have enjoyed plenty of time on the water. Led by three-time Olympian Nathalie Brugger and Under 19 World Nacra 15 champion Marie Mazuay, the Swiss are a well-organised unit that have successfully fused youth and experience under the management of Matias Bühler and Coraline Jonet.
France and the United States are potentially the dark horses amongst the America's Cup teams, but both have serious foiling talent in their ranks. Olympic Nacra 17 representative in Tokyo 2020, Manon Audinet has drafted in the match-racing brilliance of Pauline Courtois and these two have formed a formidable partnership.
Equally, over at NYYC American Magic the helming duo are top drawer. Double Olympian Francesca Clapcich is joined by Paris ILCA Olympian Erika Reineke and the American Magic senior team have done a superb job integrating both their Women and Youth sailors into the senior team set-up and that experience could well be decisive.
The top three spots to get through to the fleet race final will be intensely fought for. Time on the water could be everything.
INVITED TEAMS
The Invited Teams are equally as competitive with some outstanding talent on display, but it could well come down to those teams that have spent the most time on the water. All of the teams have completed extensive simulator time, and an unofficial digital league has seen teams from around the world challenging each other online.
Two teams really stand out here in the form of the Swedish and Australians with the Swedes having the serious benefit of the team having their own boat to train on in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Helmed by Ida Svensson and Julia Gross, they will be looking for a fast start - but will have some serious competition to contend with.
Olympic silver medallists Nina Curtis and Lisa Darmanin lead the Australian challenge and have hit the ground running in Barcelona and - as always with Australian teams - are super-competitive. They will push hard, for sure, but the surprise package could well be the JAJO DutchSail Team who welcomed back Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with Gold medals won in the 49erFX Class.
The outsider teams - but still very much in with a shout - are the Spanish, Canadian and German teams, and looking down the rosters of each of these teams you can find world class sailing talent, all determined to do well.
For the hometown supporters, the Spanish Sail Team BCN features Olympian and 470 World Champion Silvia Mas alongside the up-and-coming talent of Neus Ballester who is rapidly becoming a foiling sensation after a stellar youth career coming up through the 420 ranks. These two are joined by Olympians Paula Barceló Martín and Nicole van der Velden, so there is a healthy mix of experience and youth to create a team that will get huge home support from the people of Barcelona.
For the AC Team Germany Women's Team, backed by legendary Cup winner Jochen Schümann, it's a team with talent to burn - including: silver medallist from Tokyo 2020 in the 49erFX Class, Tina Lutz; Rio 2016 Olympian, Victoria Jurczok; and Olympian and 470 World Champion Luise Wanser. Also coming into the German team is foiling star Franziska Mäge - the 2019 International Moth Women's World Champion. If they can harness all this talent, AC Team Germany could well spring a surprise.
Finally, one team not to be discounted is the Canadian challenge, Concord Pacific Racing, who have impressed in training. Led by ILCA 6 star Isabella Bertold and supported by Olympians Ali Ten Hove and Mariah Millen the Canadians have been racking up the hours on the simulator and will be keen to put a strong series together.
So the teams are set, the training and practice race days are over, the racing can begin. The top three from each division will make it through to the final fleet races to decide the top two contenders who will then go on to fight for the title in a winner-takes-all one race, match-race, final.
Crucially, the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup Final will take place on Sunday October 13 in between races on the second day of the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup Match. The eyes of the world will be on the next generation of female athletes who have their chance not only to write their names in history but to signal their intent as the coming-generation of tomorrow's America's Cup superstars.
All of which could not be possible without the unwavering support of Puig, a Barcelona-based, global leader in the beauty and fashion industry, whose aim has been to provide female sailors with a platform to showcase their skills and talent in the high-performance foiling AC40s and provide a skills pathway to the America's Cup itself. By supporting the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup, the company is actively demonstrating its commitment to promoting inclusivity, gender equality, and diversity within the sport of sailing - a sport that they have a long association with.
The Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola was commissioned to create the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup Trophy. Urquiola imagined 'a simple, geometric figure, like a cylinder, without decorative elements or a base, which at one point opens up like a large sail struck by the wind'. Made of silver, with a height of 58 cm and weighing about five kilograms, the trophy's interior has a rose gold effect, and it has no handles, "So that the winning team can embrace it in its full form," Urquiola explains.
Getting their hands on that spectacular trophy and fully embracing it is the ultimate goal for the cream of the world's best female athletes. Stand back, the Puig Women's America's Cup is about to take centre stage.