LONDON – Swiss SailGP Team’s Sebastien Schneiter is stepping away from the helm for the rest of this season to focus on winning an Olympic medal in sailing’s 49er class with Arno de Planta.
Geneva-based Schneiter said he had handed the wheel of the Swiss F50 foiling catamaran to veteran co-driver Nathan Outteridge for the rest of SailGP’s fourth season.
Schneiter will compete in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, his third campaign in the 49er class. After a podium in the Olympic Test Event and a vice-World Champion title in 2023, Schneiter is tipped as being one of the top contenders for an Olympic medal this summer.
“It’s the best decision for Swiss SailGP Team and for my goal of winning an Olympic medal for Switzerland,” Schneiter said ahead of New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Christchurch.
In a packed year for some of the world’s top sailors the SailGP season culminates in a $2 million winner-takes-all grand final in San Francisco in July, just weeks before the start of the Paris 2024 Games.
“For the past 10 years I’ve been working towards this moment and this summer, with the Olympics in Marseille, I feel that this dream can become realistic if we keep working hard,” Schneiter said in a statement on SailGP’s website.
Schneiter said that despite finishing this month’s World Championship in Lanzarote in sixth place, the early stages of the event had not gone as planned for the Swiss pair.
“Having a little challenge and not achieving our goals has allowed us to reflect and change our approaches, which has made us come out of it stronger,” Schneiter added according to Reuters.
After the Olympics, the sailing world’s focus will switch to New Zealand’s defence of the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona.
Racing begins in late August and runs until October and includes the first women’s event, as well as a youth competition.
Britain’s Ben Ainslie handed the helm of his SailGP F50 to double Olympic gold medallist Giles Scott in January so that he could concentrate on his role as skipper of Britannia, the British challenger for the America’s Cup.
Overall leader Australia, meanwhile, held out Denmark to win their home leg of the SailGP series on Sydney harbour.
Australia and New Zealand both were over the start line early in the final but while New Zealand couldn’t fully recover and finished third, Australia rallied brilliantly to win a regatta for the first time this season.
The three-time defending champion Australia hadn’t won an event in Season 4 of the global league that features 50 foiling catamarans, AP reported.
Australia now leads the series with 66 points ahead of New Zealand with 58 points and Denmark with 52 after the eighth regatta of the season.
New Zealand won both of the most recent regattas in the Middle East and had won four of seven events before Sydney. Australia bounced back strongly at home after a season-worst seventh place finish in Abu Dhabi last month.
Denmark and Australia were tied for first place. New Zealand was third after winning the third and final race on day one.
Australia and New Zealand both mistimed their starts and crossed the start line too early in the final. That meant they were behind Denmark after completing penalties.
