37 ème America's cup. Barcelone 2024 - Les loucheries de Jack La Tour

Malheureusement en anglais, on peut résumer le texte en disant que 14 équipiers ont été recrutés par le team Alinghi, tous jeunes ( une moyenne de 30 ans) dont nous connaissons très bien deux d’entre eux. Tous suisses, jeunes et talentueux ont une solide expérience en foils, bateaux rapides. Le plus jeune, Nicolas Rolaz, 22 ans, champion du monde en optimiste.

Fourteen sailors have been selected to join the Alinghi Red Bull Racing crew and represent the Société Nautique de Genève as a Challenger for the 37th America’s Cup.

The 14 selected are all young, Swiss and talented, with solid experience in foiling, fast boats, rowing and cycling; and will represent Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Switzerland in the next America’s Cup – sailing’s most prestigious event – to be held in Barcelona in 2024.

With an average age of 30 (11 years younger than the last crew that took Switzerland to victory in Valencia) this team represents the youth factor. Eight of them will board the AC75 foiling monohull, classified into two groups: the driving group and the power group.

For the sailors in the first group, called afterguard, selection started last summer with interviews, followed by physical and sailing tests.

Pierre-Yves Jorand, co-general manager in charge of sports operations, explained: “It was really a collective effort: we worked with the head trainer Nils Frei and the first sailors selected and made all our decisions together. Character, Attitude and development potential are as important as skills.”

The sailors in the driving group gained their experience across a range of elite-level sports, flying boats and the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup and personify what is called the ‘Alinghi generation’.

The youngest is 2014 Optimist world champion Nicolas Rolaz, 22, who revealed: “It’s an honour for me, a dream come true. I started sailing during the previous victory in 2007; Ernesto Bertarelli and his crew had shown that it was possible to reach the top even if you’re from a landlocked country like Switzerland.”