Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti have become Italy’s greatest Olympic sailors of all time after winning their second Olympic title at Paris 2024. The duo have dominated the Nacra 17 class for the past four years, winning the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 and taking four world titles.
From being a semi-foiler for the Tokyo cycle, when the boat was capable of foiling downwind but lowriding upwind, some technical upgrades to the rudders converted the catamaran into a boat capable of foiling all the way around the race course.
That equipment upgrade should have been a reset for the fleet as they worked hard to decipher the new rules of the souped-up Nacra 17. But Tita and Banti barely broke stride. In fact, they managed to work out the new rules of upwind hydrofoiling before anyone else and dominated the 2022 World Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first big event using the new setup.
Head of the Italian Sailing Team, Michele Marchesini, says no one matches their work ethic. “They always have the helicopter view of the campaign, they always see the bigger picture, but they also understand the details and no one works harder than them to bring all the details together,” he said.
What Tita said soon after coming ashore from victory backs up Marchesini’s analysis. “We said to each other before starting this cycle that winning the second one was going to be much harder than the first one,” said Tita. “So, yeah, we are proud of what we achieved during this period. We didn’t win the medal today or this week week. It’s all the work that we put together for three years and three World Championships that we have won in the past three years. So we are happy, because we knew it would be so to win it again.”
As to becoming Italy’s best ever Olympic sailors, Banti was clear. “We don’t see ourselves like that. “We just try to do our best this week, and every time we go racing. Now we need some days to think about what we have done,” she said.
One of the tensions in the campaign was that Banti was fully focussed on the Olympic goal while Tita’s attentions have been split between the Olympics and his role as one of the helmsmen for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the Italian campaign for the America’s Cup which begins before the end of this month. No sooner than Tita had the gold medal around his neck than he was getting ready to head over to Barcelona ASAP.
“It has been very tough for me to combine two things like this, but even more for Caterina and it for sure put her in a lot of tough moments. But she did an incredible job, especially working on the physical side to be as fit as possible.”
So Tita barely has time to stock of what he has achieved as he buzzes over to Barcelona. But for Banti, she can start to relax and enjoy the feeling of becoming Italy’s greatest ever female Olympic sailors.
written by Andy Rice
