World Sailor of the Year: Italy's high-flyers Tita and Banti honoured twice

The Italian sailing duo's success story culminated in the 2021 Olympics in Japan: the top favourites won gold in the Nacra 17 on two hulls, 13 years after the last Italian sailing medal and 21 years after Alessandra Sensini's surfing gold in Sydney. Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti have been unbeatable for years, even by the best competitors. On course for the 2024 Olympics, they are once again the foiling catamaran crew to beat in the battle for the medals off Marseille.

Ruggero Tita: good at the Olympics and challenged in the America's Cup

Ruggero Tita is doing double duty until 2024: in addition to his Olympic sport, the 30-year-old from Rovereto is also an afterguard member of the Italian America's Cup team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Tita is also known for his love of extreme and fun sports. He loves kitesurfing, surfing, snowkiting, paragliding, speed flying, snowboarding and freestyle skiing. Click here for the 2021 Olympic results in Nacra 21.

It is extraordinary that Ruggero Tita's foresailor Caterina Banti was named World Sailor of the Year at the same time as her helmsman. The experienced 35-year-old Roman has formed a unit with her coxswain for six years, whose dominance has been challenged in vain by the best international Nacra 17 crews.

Who can beat the Azzurri on course for the 2024 Olympics?

Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti's hunters also include Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer from the Kieler Yacht-Club. The German duo won bronze in the Nacra 17 off Enoshima in 2021. Stuhlemmer's recent knee injury has thrown her out of the rhythm of the season, so the pre-Olympic year 2023 will show whether one of the international crews or the German crew will manage to close the gap on the Italian high-flyers.

After the individual title, now the team victory for Tom Slingsby

Australia's SailGP team has been honoured as Sailing Team of the Year. The award recognises the second consecutive SailGP season championship for the team led by jack-of-all-trades Tom Slingsby. And it is also the second honour in a row, as Australian Tom Slingsby was named World Sailor of the Year last year as an individual athlete.

The Vortex Pod Racer was voted Boat of the Year at the World Sailing Annual Meeting. The Bremen-based company Greenboats, which received the World Sailing 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award for its pioneering work in the development and manufacture of products and components made from natural fibres, was celebrated.

Greenboats receives the sustainability award

Greenboats identifies and establishes sustainable alternatives to conventional composite materials. Boris Herrmann's new "Malizia - Seaexplorer" also incorporates a number of Greenboats solutions. Greenboats receives prize money of 10,000 US dollars from the 11th Hour Racing Foundation to finance future developments.

Record-breaking world sailor of the year is Sir Ben Ainslie

World Sailing launched the World Sailor award in 1994 to honour outstanding achievements in sailing. Only once has a German sailor won the honour, in 1996 with Jochen Schümann. The honour followed Schümann's third and last gold medal, which he won in the American waters off Savannah with Thomas Flach and Bernd Jäckel. Sir Ben Ainslie is the record winner with four honours. The Briton has won just as many gold medals and is the most successful Olympic sailor in the history of the sport.