Ten leading women in nautical revisit their pioneering journey in 'Feeling Freedom'

From elite athletes and ocean navigators to captains and Olympic champions. The book Sentir la libertad (Feeling Freedom) compiles the stories of ten women who have broken barriers in the field of sailing. Written by journalist Asun Paniagua, it stands as a narrative to give visibility to advances towards equality and inclusion. Through the trajectory of these ten pioneers and role models, the book aims to contribute to highlighting the role women play in all sectors, including the nautical field.

In an initiative promoted by Caixabank, these ten stories have shaped the book within the framework of the America's Cup, in the first edition that will feature a women's regatta. "The women's category is here to stay," proclaimed Olympic champion and coach of the Sail Team BCN women's team, Mónica Azón.

At the presentation of the book, which also includes her story, Azón expressed confidence not only that the women's regatta will continue, but also that Spain will be able to compete in the absolute category in future editions of the America's Cup: "I hope that in the next edition we can make history and be in all three categories."

Sentir la libertad reviews Azón's career until she became an Olympic medalist and coach of Sail Team BCN, a team that includes both the youth category and the women's category. She is not the only Olympic medalist included in the book, which also covers the stories of Theresa Zabell, the only Spanish woman with two Olympic gold medals and current president of the Ecomar Foundation; Olympic champion and Sail Team BCN sailor, Támara Echegoyen, and double Olympic medalist Natàlia Via-Dufresne. Now as Head of Water Operations for the America's Cup, Via-Dufresne will be responsible for organizing the regatta course environment: "Since Barcelona was designated as the host city for the competition, I knew I wanted to be involved in some way."

The book also reviews the career of Valencia's maritime captain, Elena Delgado; the operator of the Maritime Coordination Center of Barcelona, Lali Pujol; the first woman to work as a port pilot in Spain, Macarena Gil, and merchant marine captain Pilar Pasanau. Currently, Pasanau is preparing her next challenge: to circumnavigate the world solo in a 5.8-meter boat. As she explained, she will start in Lanzarote and sail to Antigua and, if she finds the sponsorship she is looking for, she will continue towards Panama to complete the circumnavigation of the globe, in a journey that will last 15 months.

In addition to collecting the history of these ten pioneers, the book includes a possible final chapter using artificial intelligence

In addition to recounting the history of these ten pioneers, the book includes a possible final chapter, with a peculiarity: it can be personalized using AI. To do this, it offers a tool that generates a story based on various user responses, who must propose the characters, a plot, and an outcome. The final result can be shared, or downloaded in eBook format and even printed, adding the new chapter to the book.

In this way, the new story can be combined with that of these ten role models, who "have changed the course and charted new routes towards inclusion and equity in the world of nautical, both sports and professional," Paniagua remarked. According to the Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of CaixaBank, María Luisa Martínez, "all of them are a source of inspiration and an example of overcoming, courage, and fighting spirit." Collecting their stories aims to give them visibility to help promote new pioneers and role models, within the framework of an America's Cup that will take the women's category as a legacy of its edition in Barcelona.