Caterina Banti, sailing, women and (fake) gender equality

After winning her second Olympic gold medal in Paris, Caterina Banti at age 37 decided to retire from her competitive career. A reasoned and conscious decision.

With the celebrations of Team New Zealand winning the America’s Cup for the third consecutive time, one of the most intense and electrifying sailing summers in recent years comes to a close. First the Olympic regattas of the Paris Games that brought Italy two splendid gold medals (Mixed Nacra 17 and Women’s Windsurfing). And then the gripping match races in Barcelona (Spain) that always for us Italians were a heart-stopping ups and downs of emotions. Luna Rossa’s bitter defeat by the British in the Louis Vuitton Cup after a spectacular and promising start as never before, but also the two splendid surprise victories of the Under 25 and women’s teams.

This is sport, you win and you lose. But beyond the podiums and rankings, they are the sailors, certainly privileged and often envied human beings who live by their passions, but who at the same time work hard, sacrifice, put themselves at the center and give up everything else. Until they stop, either gradually or suddenly and perhaps at the peak of their careers, as Caterina Banti did recently, who after her second Olympic gold medal, at age 37, said “stop.” A decision hers that made quite an uproar in the sailing community. Especially because it was accompanied by sincere, intelligent and rather harsh words toward the professional environment.

A trained woman who thinks for herself

An interesting character, Banti, not at all ordinary, not only for her incredible sporting talent and determination, but also for her approach to life and awareness as one accustomed to reflection as well as struggle. Meanwhile, she is a woman who came to sailing rather late, at the age of 23. First she studied. After graduating from classical high school, she graduated from Rome with a degree in History and Civilization of the East and the Mediterranean and then from the Oriental University in Naples, where in addition to Arabic and modern Turkish she became interested in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

• Here is our interview with Caterina Banti (starting at minute 3:45)

She speaks four languages, traveled to Africa with her father Giorgio, a Glottologist by profession, and lived in Tunis for a year.“I would not be who I am,” Caterina says, ”if I had not studied and learned to think for myself.

The relationship with the body: from “body shaming” to muscles

When she decided to take up competitive sailing Caterina Banti chose a new, technological and very physical Olympic class such as the Nacra 17. She became an outstanding bowwoman and together with helmsman Ruggero Tita formed a truly unrivaled crew at the international level.

Together and in just a few years they have won everything: Europeans, world championships, but above all two Olympic gold medals in a row (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024). Extraordinary achievements, won with great sacrifice and grueling training that tested her mind and especially her physique.

“As a child I was chubby- Caterina tells Repubblica- they called me ‘whale’ and I suffered from bulimia. As a bowwoman I had to gain 10 kilos in two years, because it is a role that requires strength, explosiveness, stamina. Confronting one’s body is the first competition of an athlete. Accepting yourself, overcoming your limits, are all important steps. From sport I received a lot, but I also gave it everything: knees, back, hands, wrists, ankles. I have not spared myself from injuries, and I am now subscribed to cervical and pubalgia.”

But what gender equality! Sailing still belongs to males

It is precisely on being a woman sailor and on a sport still dominated by a strong macho mentality that Caterina Banti’s reflection after her retirement from the scene focuses.She drops a real bombshell in this regard on the entire sailing environment and her words are heavy and without discount.Her conviction is that sailing towards women still has strong retrograde and unjustified prejudices.The much shouted openings by major sailing events toward women are actually window-dressing operations.

But Banti is especially angry with the concept of “pink quotas,” which she says is completely misleading.”Why still today are the official America’s Cup teams only male?And what is the point of exclusively female crews or regattas?– Catherine asks – I believe in the strength of mixed crews and equal opportunity.

Men and women can train and win together. Ruggero and I proved that.Instead, at some point the women disappear.I give an example: World Sailing has announced the finalists for the Sailor of the Year Award, in the men’s category there is Ruggero Tita’s name, I am happy about that, but in the women’s category there is no mine. But Ruggero does not compete alone, we won the titles together.”What is absurd by the way is that Ruggero and Caterina are on the short list of finalists as a team. The same treatment, in reverse parts, was given to Lisa Vucetti and Vittorio Bonifacio: in the “young category” of the award, she was also excluded from the award finalists, while he is there.

Bertelli? He is an old-style man…

And on the subject of the America’s Cup, Caterina Banti comments on the statement by Patrizio Bertelli, the owner of Luna Rossa, who recently said he did not want mixed teams in match racing for the trophy. Banti told Repubblica, “He is a man from another time, when women on board put fear, men thought they brought bad luck, disturbance and misfortune. But these are just stereotypes. Is the man more direct and practical? He often is. The woman may be less concrete, but she has great mental strength and stamina. If you do not give us the opportunity to try, how can you say we are unfit. Test our merits and then discard us. But afterwards, not before. How can we become good if we are not given a chance?”.

According to Banti, the media also think in stereotypes. “At the Tokyo Games,” she explains, “they used to ask me, ‘How come you and Ruggero are not engaged?’. There, the sexual relationship, only that seemed to be of interest. Not the winning partnership despite the differences in characters, not the interchangeable roles, not the life paths, not the personalities.”

Competitive sailing is a gym for life

Today Caterina Banti is ready to face new challenges. For example, devoting herself to her affections, her boyfriend with whom she wants a child, her aging parents, and her siblings. But she also wants to continue studying. “I enrolled at LUISS, in the Master in Public Affairs and External Relations, and in the Olympic Management course at CONI (the italian olimpic committee)” she says, “And I am a gender candidate for the National Council of the Italiann Sailing Federation representing athletes. Today, also thanks to competitive sailing, I feel like a strong person, able to control emotions and withstand great pressures.

David Ingiosi