2024 was a fantastic year for Spaniards Diego Botin and Florian Trittel: three weeks after winning SailGP’s season 4 in San Francisco, they were crowned 49er Olympic champions in Marseille, then elected World Sailing Sailor of the Year in early November. Before the start of the new SailGP’s season this weekend in Dubai, Tip & Shaft talked with Diego Botin (30), skipper of Spain SailGP Team.
▶︎ SailGP champion, Olympic gold medal, Sailor of the Year, would you have imagined such an exceptional year?
I didn’t think so many good things were going to happen, but the possibility was always there, and we have always worked very hard with Flo to give us the best chance on every competition. Things seemed to come along together in July for us, definitely with SailGP and the Games in the same month, it is just amazing!
▶︎ What was the most difficult to win, SailGP or Olympic gold?
That’s a good question! It was very different. Probably in SailGP, we were not the favorites, we were more like the underdogs. We knew that we could make it into the final and at the end of the day, it’s a three-boat final race where the winner takes all. So we knew that if we got into that final, we would have our chances. But it was super close. We didn’t start well that weekend in San Francisco. We were fighting for the third spot in the final with the French. They were doing really well and suddenly they had that issue in race 4, and we were inside the final. And from then on, we just put the pedal into the metal full on, and it turned out good for us. That was super amazing. And then the Games, it’s been a dream for a while. I think we were one of the favorite teams, we always said with Flo when we started campaigning together for Paris, that our aim was to take the gold medal and we were going to do everything we could to get it. But it turned out to be a very difficult week in Marseille, the conditions were super hard. We suffered a lot but we managed to stay consistent which was the key. And at the end we took gold, it was fantastic. The Games are more a long-term goal for me, putting so much work into something and having also lost so much during the way and definitely achieving it, the feeling is amazing! It’s hardly comparable with SailGP.
▶︎ And Sailor of the Year?
It’s a massive honor! Yes, we had a fantastic year but when you look at the names that are there, its is so honourful. It was also a dream, a life dream that you don’t know if you’re ever going to reach. Having this trophy in our hands, it was just amazing.
“Peter and Blair are
one of my idols”
I started in Santander where I still live right now. At that time, my father was preparing for the Mini Transat, and I went out with him a couple of times but quickly, I wanted to sail by myself, so I started in the Optimist. I was lucky that the Spanish Olympic team was all based at Santander, so I was going to the sailing center every day, looking at these Olympic guys as my idols, I just wanted to be like them, the dream started then, basically.▶︎ Why the 49er? And when did you realize that you could become a professional sailor?
I was especially looking at Iker (Martinez) and Xabi (Fernandez) [Olympic champions in Athens then silver medalists in Beijing, ed’s note] – I was watching them training every day and since then I knew that the 49er was going to be my boat. And from then on I just didn’t stop.
▶︎ Did you have other idols?
I sailed against Peter (Burling) and Blair (Tuke) in the 49er when they were dominating the class [Olympic champions in Rio, silver medalists in London and Tokyo, ed’s note] and a lot of my sailing knowledge comes from looking at them. So they are definitely ones of my idols. Tom Slingsby is also one of them, I admire how he is able to be at the top in so many different leagues, Laser, Moth, SailGP, TP52, AC75… And Ben Ainslie for me is another big one.
▶︎ Now you are the equal of them, aren’t you?
Well, I think it’s not comparable. We certainly had a very good year, but we are still growing a lot. I think we haven’t reached the top of our learning curve yet, it’s for us a kind of the beginning of the career, we don’t know where it’s going to finish now, but these guys have been at the top for so many years, it’s not so comparable.
“Offshore is not for me”
(Laugh). It’s true that my family has always been related to the sea. For me it’s an honor to also be part of this story in a completely different area. My father loves the offshore sailing, my uncle is more in the designing part and I’m more into the inshore sailing, it’s nice to be able share all this with them.▶︎ Have you never been tempted by ocean racing, like your father?
I get seasick! Offshore is not for me, it’s very tough. Every time I spend time in a boat outside, I just don’t feel great, I’m not comfortable for many days in the deep sea. For now, it’s not on my calendar, I see it far. But who knows? We’ll see how it evolves and maybe in the future I get in touch with it a bit more because I find it’s a fascinating world, I admire a lot the people that do it and how the French in particular take the offshore sailing, it’s unique in the world and I really think it is very nice. It’s amazing to see so many boats in the Vendee Globe, so many designs with the new foiling Imoca’s.
▶︎ After your 9th position in Rio for you first Olympics in 2016, you finished 4th in Tokyo, both of them with Iaglo Lopez, was it a disappointment for you?
Definitely. Because we finished fourth, equal points to third. We were heading to the medal race in a good position, we also had options for gold, but at the same time, I feel that we sailed a very good Olympics for the level we had at that time. So I was very proud how we managed that, this feeling made me not suffer too much and helped me to erase it quickly and focus on the next Paris Olympics. We took the learnings from this cycle and the power to start again, because when you finish fourth so close to the medal that it’s such a dream for you, you want to do everything you can to make sure that it won’t happen again. I think that it gave me more energy to elevate our chance to win a medal in Paris.
“What fascinates me as a sailor
is to be better every day”
Florian and I have been sailing together in other projects in the past, for example in the Youth America’s Cup, we also have sailed in the Optimist in the same time. When we finished the Tokyo Games, I approached him, he also did the Games in Nacra 17 and also finished close to the medal, we thought that we could have a good combination together in the 49er. And as soon as we started, we saw things were coming well very quickly. Flo is a super super talented sailor who gets things so fast, because it’s not so easy to jump from an Olympic boat to an other like he did. When he started, I did 49er for 12 years, what he has achieved in three years is amazing.▶︎ You have won gold medal, SailGP, what are your next goal? America’s Cup?
I would love to be involved at some point in the America’s Cup. But right now, I have no space in my head for it. We still have to decide, Flo and I, if we want to go for another Olympic campaign for LA. We probably will do some 49er events next year, and see how our motivation is, because we know how much work needs to be put into it to be able to opt for a medal. We’ve been in the Olympic world for a long time, so we don’t have to rush, we prefer to do two or three years full on than four years, putting the gas too early and getting burned. So we’ll take a conscious decision. Our main priority now is to really create a strong basis with SailGP. That means make the team financially self-sustainable and keep improving. Last season was a massive achievement for us, but you have to remind that we came from last position in the previous season. Having said that I also think that we have a massive room of improvement, we didn’t reach our top level, it keeps us super excited. What fascinates me as a sailor is to be better every day, that’s exactly the sport!
▶︎ How do you see this league? Is it like Formula One?
Yes definitely! It’s crazy to see the speed at which SailGP is growing up. This season, we’ll have 12 teams instead of 10, two more events in the calendar, the way the technology of the boats is improving is also impressive, we’ve soon gonna have the T-foils, and the best inshore sailors of the world are in this league right now, so it’s definitely the league you want to be in.
Photo: Felix Diemer for SailGP
