Children of the Wind: face-to-face with the blue “Nacristi” and Santiago Lange. VIDEO and PHOTOS

For as long as the Nacra 17 has existed as an Olympic boat, Italy has been one of the nations that has expressed the highest technical level, first during the four-year Rio Olympics and then repeating itself with the current one. In the Brazilian Olympics Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri came within a whisker of the medal, today some of the performers have changed, Bissaro races in tandem with Maelle Frascari from Rome, and among the undisputed leaders in the World Cup are Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, reigning European and world champions.

The Italian team, which also includes the very strong Bressani-Zorzi and the young Ugolini-Giubilei, remains one of the best at the international level, already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, and now awaiting the very delicate passage of domestic selection for the Olympics.

At the Hempel World Cup in Genoa, the results were not what was hoped for, with all of our people off the podium, aided and abetted by a week of very unstable winds with a fleet level that is rising event after event and will continue to do so until the Olympics.

FROM THE DOCKS OF GENOA

However, we did not miss the opportunity to chat with our two top crews, reigning world champions Tita-Banti and Bissaro-Frascari. Enriching our Nacra-themed chat was Argentine Olympic legend Santiago Lange, a three-time Olympic medalist including gold in Rio in Nacra 17, whose full interview we will also publish shortly.

“Everyone else is growing and arriving, so there will be games to play,” Ruggero Tita told us, “internal competition can only be good for our team, which is one of the best in the world,” Vittorio Bissaro echoed him, who also told us why he loves this Olympic catamaran: “I’m in love with boats that go fast, I’ve always had a passion for evolution and the vanguards of technology. The Nacra today is the first Olympic boat that flies, when we get old it will be nice to remember that we were the first to learn how to fly an Olympic boat.”

Shooting and editing Bacci del Buono

Texts Mauro Giuffrè