LONDON (Reuters) – British sailors Hannah Mills and Ben Ainslie on Monday named the squad who will attempt to win this year's inaugural women's America's Cup and retain the youth version of the event.
The selection of 12 sailors from more than 300 will see Mills back in a boat with Saskia Clark, the crew with whom the most successful Olympic female sailor won her first gold medal in the 470 dinghy class in Rio in 2016.
The Women's and Youth America's Cups, which will take place alongside the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona in September and October, are the central plank of the Athena Pathway, which Mills and Ainslie launched in 2022 with the aim of increasing diversity in sailing and Britain's marine industry.
"To get the chance to compete in the America's Cup as the first female team is massive," Mills told Reuters at the squad announcement in London, adding of the wider Athena Pathway initiative: "I just want more people to get the chance to experience what I've experienced through sport".
Clark told Reuters she was relishing the prospect of reuniting with Mills and would be honing her skills on a simulator before getting on board the team's AC40 foiling monohull in Barcelona from April.
Mills earlier said the selection of the squad, who between them boast a total of six Olympic and 22 world championship medals, had been "a very difficult decision".
On-the-water and simulator-based trials were used to assess the abilities of the sailors to adapt to the skills required to step up to the AC40 foiling monohulls which will be used for the events and can "fly" at speeds of up to 100 km per hour.
Mills said the relatively recent explosion of foiling, where boats, windsurfers or kite boards skim above the water on foils, was a game-changer for encouraging a new generation of sailors.
"To watch all these flying machines ripping around you is so exciting for kids," she added.
Other athletes selected include Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Anna Burnet, who as well as Ellie Aldridge, Saskia Tidey and Freya Black, is set to represent Britain at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The other picks are Nick Robins, Hannah Diamond, Matt Beck, Alex Hughes, James Grummett and Hattie Rogers.
"To be able to create that pathway for someone like Hannah with the credibility and everything she stands for leading it on the water is a really great moment," Ainslie, whose own team will be attempting to go head-to-head with holders New Zealand to win the world's oldest sporting trophy, told Reuters.
Athena Pathway's challenge will be backed by UK-based aerospace and maritime technology firm Cobham-Ultra in a deal which Ainslie said represented a "significant investment".
"It's exciting, not just for this summer but for the long-term. We've really tried to put together a programme that's going to help youngsters from the grass-roots all the way through," said Ainslie, the most successful male Olympic sailor.