By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN
Naples, Italy (CNN) — When Louisa Nordstrom was growing up, the posters hanging in her bedroom didn’t portray pop stars or movie actors; instead, legendary British skipper Ben Ainslie was smiling from the wall, together with a dedicated autograph.
Twenty years later, it is Nordstrom – now an accomplished sailor who’s training to race in next year’s America’s Cup – who hands out autographs to young women and girls looking for inspiration to follow her footsteps.
“It’s a bit surreal,” Nordstrom says laughing to CNN Sports, before taking a more measured tone to reflect on her achievements. “I hope that young girls now are able to see more and more women at the highest level of sport and have something to aspire to and see that there is a path forward (in sailing).”
Nordstrom and her ARC Team USA crew are in Naples this month to prepare for the 38th edition of the Cup, which will be held in Italy in July 2027.
It will be the second European nation the world’s oldest still-running sports competition has visited (after Spain), but this year marks a historic first, with each team now required to field at least one woman as part of its crew.
The inclusion of women, albeit mandatory, is no small matter, as sailing has long been accused of being a masculine environment, if not outright sexist.
One survey published this year by The Magenta Project, 11th Hour Racing and World Sailing shows that three out of four women involved in sailing believe gender balance is a problem, while more than 85% of the women polled said they experienced sexism.
“Sailing has historically been a very male-dominated sport and that’s the reality of it,” concedes Nordstrom, who believes however that the technological advances the sport has experienced in recent years has made it almost impossible to ignore calls for inclusions.
“In a lot of sports, there are inherent biological differences between men and women, the unique thing now with sailing is that it’s becoming a more leveled playing field with regards to the physical capabilities (of the sailors),” she added.
Tech advances equal the playing field
Gone are the days of pulling ropes and lifting weights on the yachts. The AC40 and AC75 that Nordstrom trains with are fiberglass vessels where sails are lifted by hydraulic pressure and the route is analyzed by powerful computers.
Jumping behind the steering wheel of one of the boats Nordstrom sails on feels like crawling into the cockpit of a race car rather than the cabin of an elegant yacht.
On the left side, a series of buttons and automatic commands activate the lines to lift the sails, even in rough sea conditions.
Nordstrom’s seat is within the hull of the boat, allowing only for the top of her head and eyeline to peek over and set the course – or half of it anyway.
“The sail goes down in the middle of the boat, so when you’re sailing, you actually can’t see half of the racecourse, so you’re blind!” she says.
Once at sea, cameras can only get a feeling of the real speed the AC40 is capable of as it foils past supporting boats and other vessels in an elegant breeze.
“All of this signals an age of change where the physicality, that brute strength side of sailing that was so prevalent forever is, I wouldn’t say eliminated, but darn close,” Ken Read, one of the most successful sailors in US history and the CEO of ARC Team USA, tells CNN Sports.
“It’s a lot more cerebral, and we all know women are smarter. Fitness is important, but mental capacity… I am often asked how does one get to be an America’s Cup sailor? I’d say stay in school and become an engineer,” says Read, who competed in two America’s Cups in 2000 and 2003.
“You look at the boats I sailed in 2000 and then you look at these boats, and it’s a completely different animal. The sport of sailing has evolved more than any other.”
A long history entering a new chapter
The role of women is integral to that evolution because, decades before this year’s breakthrough, women have long been around the America’s Cup.
In 1995, an almost-all-female crew led by Dawn Riley on board the Mighty Mary nearly managed to represent the US in the 1995 edition, a feat chronicled in a new documentary out this year of the same name.
Seeing the Mighty Mary take on the male crews back then “was like watching Princess Leia take on Darth Vader,” a spectator to the event says in the film.
Despite a valiant effort on the water, that milestone failed to normalize a more ever-present female presence at the Cup for almost three decades.
Then in 2024, a new standalone event – the Women’s America’s Cup – was launched as part of the 37th edition in Barcelona, Spain, paving the way to the change in regulations and the mixed competition launched this year. Nordstrom and several of the athletes training in Naples when CNN visited took part in that event, which they think should be a mandatory step before climbing to the main competition.
“(Female participation) should not come as mandatory,” says Shirley Robertson, a former Olympic sailor and presenter of CNN’s Mainsail program, who’s now working as a broadcaster for the Cup.
“However, unless you mandate it, it would never happen. It took 32 years from Mighty Mary, but this year’s achievement is truly historic. This is a competition that means a lot to a lot of people… and there are a lot of traditions,” Robertson tells CNN Sports.
For her part, Nordstrom shrugs off her achievement in the America’s Cup with a matter-of-fact attitude: “The goal, ultimately, is to have the best people on the boat, and now more than ever there’s more opportunities to gain that experience for females, so it should become level with time.”
Nordstrom’s role as a sailor is not just limited to the Cup. Before the 2024 Women’s America’s Cup, she also competed in the qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the 470 Class, a much smaller vessel composed of a mixed, two-person crew.
With the Summer Games heading to Los Angeles in 2028, is that also on her mind?
“The opportunity to compete on home waters (in the US) is amazing and it was definitely something that I was looking to do. However, … getting to be a part of the America’s Cup campaign, it’s kind of like a once in a lifetime opportunity that you don’t want to pass up. I’m definitely putting all my energy into this campaign at the moment.”
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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