Támara Echegoyen, Neus Ballester, Maria Cantero, Silvia Mas and Paula Barceló. These are the five Spanish athletes who will be remembered among the first sailors to participate in the first women's America's Cup. With Olympic and world trophies among their achievements, the five selected will compete in the Puig Women's America's Cup wearing the colors of Sail Team BCN ---the Barcelona team representing Spain---, and face the regatta aware of the relevance of their pioneering role within the competition and beyond.
"This is the beginning of something very big," Cantero proclaimed at the official presentation of the team, at a sunny event in Port de Sitges-Aiguadolç. The port has become the base for the women's and youth teams of Sail Team BCN for the America's Cup, which has the sponsorship of CaixaBank. Being part of this first women's team allows the sailors to maximize their contact with the characteristic boats of the competition, which fly more than they sail, and also represents "an opportunity to demonstrate the advancement of women in a sport like sailing." Cantero, born in 1997 and an athlete from the Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria, praises the role of sailors in this first women's competition, responsible for "laying the foundations for future generations."
"We are fortunate to be part of this," Paula Barceló remarked. The world champion will compete this year not only in the America's Cup, but also in the Paris Olympic Games, and she will do so alongside Támara Echegoyen. These are "two different projects that complement each other, and in which we do what we like: sail," proclaimed Barceló, born in Palma de Mallorca in 1996. Echegoyen, from Real Club Náutico Sanxenxo and born in 1984, shares this challenge with her, although the Olympic and world champion has done so from a distance: due to an international flight mishap, she participated in the presentation with a video recorded from an airport on the other side of the Atlantic.
Sailing with the unique America's Cup boats requires not only technique, but also knowledge of engineering, mathematics, and even fluid dynamicsAfter participating in the Paris Olympics in the summer, Echegoyen and Barceló will reunite with their teammates from Sail Team BCN, which also includes Neus Ballester, born in 2003 also in Palma de Mallorca. The athlete from Club Náutico Sa Ràpita has sailing in her blood, and faces the competition with her parents as guides: her mother was world champion in 1989, and her father was an Olympic medalist in 1996. Silvia Mas also carries the sea and sailing in her genes, born in 1996 into a family of four siblings, all of them sailors. The athlete, from El Masnou, highlights the undisguised impact that the unique America's Cup boats had on her: sailing them requires not only technique, but also knowledge of engineering, mathematics, and even fluid dynamics. "There are steering wheels and buttons, and practically not a single rope," Mas illustrates.
With this differential mode of sailing, the competition boats reach much higher speeds than usual in classic navigation, as the boats barely touch the water. In a context where other teams are more accustomed to this type of navigation, Sail Team BCN trains daily by sailing and with a simulator: "We are going to fight to do our best and, above all, for it to serve for the future, after having broken this barrier."
The first women's America's Cup competition, which will take place in October, is set to continue over time. "Our intention is that this does not end here and that the next editions of the America's Cup, whether held in Barcelona or not, will again have a women's competition," proclaimed the head of Sail Team BCN, Guillermo Altadill. The iconic Spanish sailor has emphasized that his goal is not only for the women's competition to be reissued, but also for the participation of the Spanish team.
The Sail Team BCN base landed in Sitges after the paths of Altadill and Albert Bertran, executive president of the port, crossed again. Both knew each other from the Whitbread race, which 35 years ago circumnavigated the world with Altadill on board, and with Bertran narrating it as a nautical journalist. Altadill, who has started ten round-the-world trips and "only" finished seven, reconnected with Bertran after Barcelona was designated as the America's Cup venue and, after conversations also with the Sitges City Council, the base ended up being located in its port. "The idea was to stay for a short time and go to Barcelona, where the races are held, but we have been invading Sitges. It is increasingly ours, and now our idea is to stay here; we feel at home," Altadill guaranteed. He even joked: "In the morning I have a coffee and try to fight with someone, because it's good for me psychologically, but here I can't, even though I've tried everything."
In Sitges' symbiotic relationship with Sail Team BCN, the town overlooking the sea also aspires to play its part in the turning point that will mark the first women's competition of the America's Cup. "Barcelona will take all the glory, deservedly, and will be the first city in the world to host the Olympic Games, a football World Cup, and the America's Cup. But Sitges will also be the first to be the base for the women's team of the competition," proclaimed the port's executive president. Given this exceptional collaboration, Sitges welcomes the base "with pride and honor," according to the mayor, Aurora Carbonell.
Sitges not only hosts the women's team: it is also the training and preparation ground for the sailors who will participate in the youth category, whose members will be presented in April.And the emblematic coastal municipality not only hosts the women's team: it is also the training and preparation ground for the young sailors who will participate in the youth category, in its third edition within the America's Cup. The young people between 18 and 25 years old who aspire to be part of the team are training both at sea and in a simulator, and the definitive members of Sail Team BCN will be presented in April, little less than half a year before they launch into competition for the iconic trophy. The youth category will be the protagonist between September 17 and 26, and will then pass the baton to the women's category, whose teams will fly over the sea from October 5 to 13 at the hands of their pioneering sailors.
Consolidating the women's category of the competition is one of the legacies that the 37th America's Cup aims to leave. The footprint of the regatta, which in Barcelona can be felt and observed as works such as the reform of Port Vell and that of Port Olímpic progress, wants to go beyond urban planning and generate an expansive wave in favor of sailing in Catalonia, with initiatives that aim to bring nautical sports and sailing in particular closer to the public. Among them is the promotion of the also first Catalan women's foil team which, like the members of Sail Team BCN, paves the way for new generations of athletes.