Gender equity drive in racing

As part of a remix for the coming season of the foiling SailGP series, each of the eight teams are to add one female athlete per team. Teams will be incentivised to include female athletes in rotation for ‘active roles’ and to include women in the sixth position, progressing to ‘practice and/or training in key roles’.

The Danish team recently announced there will be two women in its squad, including AnneMarie Rindom, a two-time World Champion and Olympic medalist.

The SailGP circuit, launched by Russell Coutts with backing from Larry Ellison, is an annual international series with similarities to the America’s Cup World Series, but sailed in foiling F50 catamarans. It features many big names from the America’s Cup, a competition which has not seen a women sailor on any team since America3’s Mighty Mary 26 years ago in 1995.

The SailGP Gender Equity Initiative is intended to ‘fast-track the development of top female sailors to race on F50s and perform at the highest level’.