Teresa Zabel is an authority in the world of sailing. Three decades after her retirement, she still holds the distinction of being the only Spanish woman to win two Olympic gold medals (Barcelona 92 and Atlanta 96). Aside from, first-person perspective, competitive sailing, … However, she remains closely linked to the sea as president of the Ecomar Foundation, which works for the sustainability of the seas and coasts. However, he closely follows the development of the sport and the sailors.
—Spain is a country with a culture of organizing big regattas: the Copa America in Valencia and Barcelona, the Ocean Race in Vigo and Alicante… That’s what makes these cities influential.
—I always use Barcelona as an example. Even across Spain, there were pre-Barcelona 92 and post-Barcelona. It had a worldwide impact that only these types of events can give you. The latest example of this, although not quite at the level of the Olympic Games, is the ocean race, which is having a good impact. The fact that on his return to Europe he stopped at Cartagena, I think he was successful, in addition to the excellent organization.
– There haven’t been Spanish teams in this type of event for years.
– That would be the icing on the cake. We all know that when someone is from home, all the fans and followers are more loyal. We’ve always seen that. It is true that if there had been a Spanish ship or even a Spanish sailor, we would all be pulling them out by now. Spain is a privilege to move around. Since we know how to host and organize big events and give them love as well, we enjoy it and give them the atmosphere and that is something they really appreciate a lot. So, we have all this part. Why are there no Spanish ships? Well, I always say that what we really lack in Spain in sailing is a great base. We have great sailors in the big events, but we don’t have any base. If we have kids navigating schools… Eventually, these kids at 20 or 30 years old can become the best marketing manager for a company. Then they may decide that that company is interested in sponsoring the boat. But right now, people with that kind of interest don’t come to companies because few people surf the Internet.
This seems like a lie to us because you arrive at the ports and they are full of ships, but in reality very few people are sailing. This is something that in France, for example, all children in all schools do two years of school sailing. They will sail one day a week for two years and not everyone will continue sailing, there will be those who like it and those who don’t, but at least they tried it. This is the mathematical pyramid. You don’t have to invent anything either.
-It is the integration of sports as a philosophy of life.
– Of course, the good thing is that when many people sail and become passionate about a sport, they love that sport and understand a little about it, because they eventually include it in other aspects of their lives. I think this is what disappoints us in Spain. I talk to several companies, not for sports sponsorship, but for the Ecomar Foundation, which also runs sailing-related programmes. And they always tell me that sailing, being so elitist, there are so few people. Which is a shame because that’s not reality. You can sail on a budget of 300 euros by buying a board at Decathlon and from there to the sky, because there is no limit. Obviously there are boats that cost hundreds of millions, but this is at the highest level of competition. So, there’s room in the middle for almost all of us.
—We have great references in sailing, but what is photography today?
– Marine sports are the ones that have given the most Olympic medals to Spain. Sailing was always first, and in Paris rowing beat us to another medal. What is that photo, a year after Paris? Photography, for me, is a sport where we have some true geniuses standing on their hands with their ears to make it to the Olympics in a position to win a medal, but with very little support below. I mean, before, even when I started sailing in 470, you would go to a Spanish championship and there would be 80 or 100 boats. Now, in the Spanish Championship, I think they will not reach 20. And in 470, not even that. On the one hand, it’s because it’s become so professional, in the sense that everyone now wants to go with good boats, and if not, they won’t go. And the part of those who go, who know they won’t win, but will do it for the sport and to have fun, is a little missing. I believe this is necessary in all sports. There’s a lot of 420, but when you have to jump to 470, you lose.
—To make the leap, you have to be very good to qualify for the ADO plan and scholarships.
– Many athletes ask me how they can do this. Well, your club has to help you and some brand or someone has to help you, otherwise it’s almost impossible.
-We are about to start the second year of the Olympics, and we are on our way to the Los Angeles Games. What are the prospects?
-There is a good team to arrive in Los Angeles in good shape. In the 49er category, Diego and Flo, in FX, Paola and Maria have just won the World Cup, and Jordi and Marta have won the World Cup and the European Championship. So, this is really good news. Almost all those who go to Paris also repeat the preparation. But the juniors, the ones who really need the promotion, I personally barely know them. This worries me, because if you don’t feed what’s below, there will come a day when Diego, Flo, Jordi, Silvia… or start sailing on other types of boats, and we won’t have people behind us.
– The danger is that there will be a shift towards ocean sailing, for example, more so than Olympic sailing.
– In ocean sailing, you can make a better life than in Olympic sailing, and in the America’s Cup you can make a better life than in ocean sailing. This is the case. So, it’s an incentive sometimes to say, okay, I joined a team where I don’t have as much responsibility on my own, because if I sail a 470 or a 49er, there’s two of you in the boat, and it’s really hard to build a team, get all the funding and live up to the task every year of being able to renew the scholarship and hit the goals. It’s very demanding. Then, when you go to ocean sailing or the America’s Cup, the demand on a one-person level is like less responsibility. You have more permanent job security.
—We already have photography on the general level, and now I ask you on the women’s level.
-Women can move around just like men. 30 or 40 years ago, having a woman in a mixed or all-male crew was very rare. In fact, I remember when I captained Innisbal for three seasons in the 1990s and we won the regatta, instead of saying Innisbal won the Copa del Rey or the Copa del Rey, the headlines were a woman leading 11 men. They said that when a man is responsible for 11 women, it is not the same. Personally, I was like that and said: “We won the regatta and they don’t say that.” So normalizing all of that is great. Dorsia is a great example of a women’s boat that has managed to create a niche for itself and speak to companies that care more about women than men. I think this is the path that other girls who want to go through and who want to find out how to finance their campaigns should follow.
– Tamara Echegoen was recently asked if she sees herself being able to lead a Spanish ocean sailing team.
– It would be great if Tamara dared to lead a project in this style. Because when you get off an Olympic sailing boat and you have these projects, what you want is to sail. Then you can also fall, I won’t say wrong because for me it’s not wrong, but you can fall a little bit into the argument that what you end up doing is managing what you set up, which is what happens to me at Ecomar. I set up a project to enjoy beach cleaning and sailing with the kids. And management is eating me up. This is ultimately something you can’t ignore day to day either. If Tamara can do that that would be great. Because we have great sailors, but team management is not just limited to the water.
– What will you ask the authorities to have the possibility of forming a team?
– I would like to ask them for tax benefits. It is true that there are many projects that already enjoy tax advantages, but I do not know to what extent companies will benefit from them in the end. Because there are many large companies that are already satiated with the tax benefits. I would like to request the government to help us spread this sport. It is a very educational sport, which teaches you many things apart from carrying the boat, fishing the sheet, or handling the rudder. And we live in a country that I don’t really know of any other country in the world, where conditions are as perfect for sailing as Spain. So we will benefit from that because well-managed sport is a very important source of employment and wealth. In sailing and marine life these conditions exist. So, if you help us popularize sailing, very good projects will come.
-And what should the basic level of Teresa Zabel’s future existence be in a few years?
– If we have too big a base, the good people will come out. It is natural law. If there are too few sailing, good people can emerge, as has been the case for a long time. But this is more than a coincidence. Because the ratio of good people in Spain compared to those who sail is very high. If there are 10 people sailing in a class in Spain, and you go to France and there are 100 or 200 people; Oddly enough, we Spaniards reach higher than those who have more, which doesn’t make sense. This is not the recommended way to do this.