On Tuesday, November 5, in Singapore, the best sailors of 2024 were honored across several categories.
The main Rolex World Sailing Award went to Olympic gold medalist Marit Bouwmeester, the most successful female sailor in Olympic sailing, and the Spanish duo of Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, gold medalists in the men’s skiff at Paris 2024.
Young World Sailor of the Year awards were won by Poland’s Ewa Lewandowska and hometown hero Max Maeder of Singapore.
Ewa Lewandowska is the most decorated Polish sailor in non-Olympic classes. Her golden streak began in December 2023 in Brazil, where she won gold at the World Sailing Youth Championships in the women’s category, and six months later she repeated this success, this time sailing in the mixed category.
Max is the reigning Formula Kite World Champion, Asian Games, Asian, and European champion, as well as the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist. He is one of the most consistent athletes in the Formula Kite class with a podium finish at every event. He is the youngest world champion of an Olympic class and Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist.
In the Sustainability category, the winner was the Winds of Change project, which aims to bridge divides and promote peace by bringing together young people from both sides of Cyprus through the unifying power of sailing.
The World Sailing Technology Award was won by Northern Lights Composites (NLcomp), which has pioneered sustainable solutions in boat construction, directly addressing environmental challenges. The company developed the "ecoracer," a winning boat in the Italian Sportboat Championship, and collaborated with prestigious shipyards like Grand Soleil and Beneteau to incorporate sustainable technologies into new boat designs, including patented recyclable composite materials that tackle the end-of-life issues of fiberglass boats.
The Team of the Year award went to Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, who dominate the Nacra 17 class. They added the Olympic mixed multihull gold to their impressive list of career achievements. The Italian pair are double Olympic champions in the mixed multihull, having retained the gold from Tokyo 2020 in Paris 2024. They also won the 2024 Nacra 17 World Championship and the Princess Sofia Regatta.
Photos: World Sailing
Source: World Sailing