Next 2024 will host the 37th edition of the oldest sporting event in the world: the America's Cup. It will be in Barcelona, between the months of August and October. In the summer, the third and final preliminary round of the competition and the Challenger Selection Series will be held, which will determine which team will face the Defensor Emirates Team New Zealand, (who holds the title of winner) in the America's Cup Match. Who will be the ones who will fight to snatch the trophy from Emirates Team New Zealand?
In this edition, INEOS Britannia, from the United Kingdom, participates; Alinghi Red Bull Racing, from Switzerland; Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, from Italy; American Magic New York Yacht Club, from the United States; and the Orient Express Racing Team of France. There will only be one winner, since the America's Cup is the regatta without second place. Either you win or you lose.
But the sporting challenge will begin in 2023. Vilanova i la Geltrú will host the first preliminary test of the competition on September 14 and 17 in which AC40 boats will be competed, which will be followed by the second in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) on the 29th. from November to December 2. These are the dates to mark on the calendar.
Those who already have them in mind are the protagonists of this event of global repercussion - the third after the Olympic Games and the World Cup - who have been on this playing field that will be the city of Barcelona for weeks. Leslie Ryan, organizational director of the 37th America's Cup, arrived before anyone else, at the beginning of September 2022, and is one of the key people at America's Cup Event Barcelona (ACE), organizer of the event.
The Olympic Games that brought her to the city for the first time in the company of her boyfriend, an Olympic sailor, were stored in her heart. She also regrets not having enjoyed Barcelona or the Olympics as much as she would have liked. She returned in 2014 with a competition and, when Barcelona beat the other 59 cities that were bidding to host the America's Cup, she reconfirmed her idea that it was the best possible choice.
“Barcelona stood out for me from the beginning, as soon as it entered the list. It is a venue that offers so many things... We can compete incredibly close to the shore and that is really unusual in our sport", she explains. And it is that, for her, a lover of this discipline since she was a child, that fans can sit on the beach and Following the show at sea "is the most important thing. It's like bringing the entire theater and the festival to the shore so that people don't have to go by boat to watch the regattas. They can do it from land, which is incredible", she adds enthusiastically.
Another of the points in favor of Barcelona is that “it is easy to get to from most places in the world and I think that, every time there is an event, at least in all the ones I have been to since I arrived, people turn out. The atmosphere is electric. I can see this happening with the America's Cup,” predicts Leslie Ryan, who welcomes the first celebration of a women's regatta with great emotion.
“I have been working in this sport for 35 years and I believe that one of the things that will make Barcelona a special event is the Puig Women's America's Cup, because it is the first time it has happened in the competition's more than 170-year history, so which will be one of the most memorable moments of this cup.
A historic milestone that will also be a counterpoint in favor of all women, like Leslie, who participate in this sport. “I have competed as a sailing athlete, I have represented my country, Ireland; I have been sailing since I was a child, but most of my life I have been surrounded by men. As a female sailor, you have to work very hard to find a way to compete at the highest level. This additional path is the icing on the cake. This is a very important moment, not only for the athletes who sail the boats, but also for all the women who work in our sport. There is a lot of female representation behind the scenes, not so much among the athletes. So I think it comes full circle,” she concludes.
This same way of feeling is shared by Mónica Azón, coach of the Sail Team Barcelona that will participate in the Puig Women's America's Cup. “It's going to be in all the books. Athletes will have one more path to focus their careers on. Until now there was initiation, children's, junior, senior, the professional route through the Olympic Games... and now a strictly female competition has been added. It is a possibility that opens a very important window. When in a few years we talk about the America's Cup, they are going to put 2024 and Barcelona as the first stone of this great women's project," celebrates this sailing enthusiast with 50 years of experience who is very clear about her role in dealing with to achieve victory.
“I know that being the host team is a responsibility for Spain, for Catalonia. “I am convinced that we are all going to try to give our best.” It has already been done in the past, "as an Olympic team we have been the one that has brought the most medals in Spanish sport," Azón recalls, and the youth team is coming strong, because "right now the young people are also pushing very hard and we have kids winning European and world championships that I think they are going to try to show in this America's Cup that they are up to the task," highlights Mónica Azón. And this 37th edition also recovers the Youth America's Cup.
Ray Davies, coach of the current Defender of the America's Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand, knows a lot about that commitment to the team, in this case, a winning one. “My approach to coaching is to work with the crew, as we are so lucky to have a group of incredible people, and to encourage them to take responsibility instead of directing or micromanaging them,” he says.
Ray Davies has been involved with the America's Cup since 2000 and has assumed many roles in the competition. “My first job was with the American team, in the meteorology program, sitting in a helicopter that looked towards the race course and warned the boat by radio, before its departure, of where the wind was best on the water. Then I started sailing with the New Zealand team as a sailor in several editions," he tells us.
Until the coaching stage arrived, "a role I take on again now with practically the same racing team with some additions. Working with the design team to make the boat, every time we go out, faster; making sure that "We are efficient in the water... Always seeking to learn every day," he says. And among the most relevant aspects for sailing, one stands out: knowing the place.
“It is not good to stay in New Zealand, the conditions are very different. Water, its density and its molecules, the different effects of temperature... It is very important that we navigate in these conditions and that we know how the wind affects us, how the sea breeze forms throughout the day or when it tends to change direction. direction as the hours pass. We have to know all these things beforehand. That is why all the teams are very focused on one year ahead,” he says.
Alex Carabí, member of the reconnaissance team of the Alinghi Red Bull Racing team, points to the weather in the Catalan territory as the greatest challenge. “This class of boats was designed to navigate in flat water and the first edition with them was held in Auckland (New Zealand), which is a very closed bay, without waves. And what is happening here? Well, this is the Mediterranean. Each day is completely different from the previous one, not like in other places in the world where the wind always blows in the same direction and with the same intensity. For them, the days when there are quite a few waves are a challenge, because these boats were not designed for this, but it is a very interesting challenge, because it is forcing them to learn and develop a new way of sailing.”
If improving the boat day by day with the design, so that it is faster, and knowing the sea and the weather is essential, the work carried out by Alex Carabí provides very valuable information: “our role in the America's Cup consists of following all the daily steps of a team. From the moment the ship leaves the hangar, we analyze whether it has new parts or technological improvements and we try to discover what they are, because logically the team does not explain anything to us. Then, in the water, we analyze their performance, their maneuvers... and we pass on reports to the rest of the teams so that they are up to date with how their rivals are doing," he details and then highlights the role that these reports play for the participants.
“In previous editions it has happened that two competitors have presented themselves with very different boats or levels of competitiveness, and that can ruin the competition. If this information is shared, it is possible that the teams will arrive with greater equality and that it will be a more interesting and disputed competition.”
The Joint Reconnaissance Program is one of the great novelties of the 37th America's Cup. The project has integrated the positive part of espionage and now each team has its own tracking boat and “this is an advantage in terms of security, because we We agree with the team and we know where to position ourselves. It can warn us if there is a dangerous situation and, in the event of an accident, we can also help them. On the other hand, before the America's Cup was a very closed world where information did not spread and now, apart from that, we generate a lot of information for the general public," celebrates the official spy.
The new edition of the regatta comes loaded with technology, innovation and also sustainability, one of the great pillars of the competition. “I am especially excited and, furthermore, it coincides with one of our main sponsors, Foundation Zero, the issue of sustainability, caring for the environment, raising awareness that we suffer a lot from the increase in temperatures, plastics… I think that goes to be very important,” highlights the Sail Team Barcelona coach. And, to achieve the care of seas and ecosystems in the 37 America's Cup, there is a lot of work behind it.
“Sustainability is key for us, as a sport. We compete in water and the health of the oceans is something we take into account. We talk about it every day and, for the athletes themselves, pollution and elements related to the environment are important for our sport, which is a natural sport powered by water and wind," insists Leslie.
This year, in addition, a partnership has been established with World Sailing, which is the governing body for sailing in the world. "For the first time, we have partnered to create our sustainability strategy. We are working with their experts. In the coming months, we will announce a series of projects that we will directly support here in Barcelona and that will have a real impact. For me sustainability is actions , things that have a real impact. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, and they leave an impact that can be measured and talked about. I think it's not about saving the planet in a holistic sense. It's about "to do real things here, at our headquarters. And that is a really exciting project that we have in hand," details the organizational director of the 37th America's Cup.
There is the current preparation and there is the future competition, the dream of winning the title. And always, the excitement of an edition that promises to be historic. “I think what excites me about this Cup is the fact that all the teams have learned a lot since the previous edition, which means that the races are going to be closer, more technical and more exciting,” says Ray Davies.
There is also the excitement of making the audience vibrate. The show will be served. “Seeing these boats up close is incredible, because they are machines that go practically 100 kilometers per hour through the water. They are very spectacular, very fast, very complex and worth seeing up close,” encourages Alex Carabí.
The Barcelona regattas will be held around Port Vell and along the beach to Port Olímpic in the Catalan capital. “We always complain that we don't see the sailors because they leave the port. Here, the regatta course will be located in front of the Catalan coast. People will be able to go down to the beach to see these boats, which are spectacular. We are talking about the Formula One of the sea: boats with more technological evolution, that fly, that are very fast and that also have mishaps, because they can capsize if there is a poorly done maneuver and that is going to provide a very interesting point to the competition. ”says Mónica Azón.
Leslie Ryan brings together, in three words, the real impact that she would like to leave on all those attending the 37th America's Cup. “One is “fabulous”, from the point of view of the spectacle, the experience, the atmosphere… If I can hear People saying that the event was fabulous, to me, would be something incredible. The second word is “fierce.” It is a competition, it is sport, there is a winner and there is a loser and in the America's Cup there is no second. And, really, I hope and believe that we will see a very close, fierce, serious competition and that is, ultimately, what the fans want. And the third is “festival”, the animation in the city, that people are excited. Our event is very long, it lasts 68 days, so we have to keep the momentum, the excitement, make different things happen every day… What I want most is that festival atmosphere.”
