Volvo Ocean Race: "She is the heroine"

Simeon Tienpont said it loud and clear as soon as his team AkzoNobel arrived in the Dutch home port of The Hague: "She's the hero!" He was referring to his compatriot Carolijn Brouwer - the only Dutch woman to celebrate a double victory with her team that day, delighting the fans and making sailing history in the process. And the woman who turned Tienpont down before the race, but had "a good feeling" about Charles Caudrelier's offer.

As helmswoman and trimmer in Charles Caudrelier's hand-picked team, Carolijn Brouwer not only passed all the tests of this 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, but also sailed all the legs on which her crew mates Marie Riou and Justine Mettraux took turns. Anyone who knows Brouwer knows that she never backs down from a challenge. When recruiting his crew, the Frenchman Charles Caudrelier must have instinctively known that this woman would suit his crew and his sailing style. Brouwer herself did not accept the first offer either. She accepted Caudrelier's offer because - having already sailed around the world twice and as an Olympic athlete - she carefully considered which team would enable her to realise her goal of becoming the first woman to win the Volvo Ocean Race.

In retrospect, it is even more interesting to hear what Carolin Brouwer said before the start of the final, all-important stage

The plan worked for both Caudrelier and Brouwer. Now, together with the entire Dongfeng Race Team, they are the heroes of international sailing. Caudrelier explained before the race why exactly he chose Caro Brouwer for his team: "I chose her because she beat us many times in the last Volvo Ocean Race. She has a great Olympic past, for which I have a lot of respect. That has made her a fast helmswoman who knows how to position a boat." Carolijn Brouwer, born in the university city of Leiden, is also a professional and thoroughbred sailor, Olympian, world champion, circumnavigator, wife and mother. The balancing act between work and private life was and is often stressful. But she does not let herself be deterred. Brouwer has completed her summit assault. She will continue to write her sailing story.