Disembarked by Banque Populaire, the French Clarisse Crémer announced, Wednesday 19 April, to have found a boat, a team and a sponsor to relaunch, despite her motherhood, for the Vendée Globe 2024.

The 33-year-old sailor has joined the team of British Alex Thomson, recent buyer of the ex-Apivia that Banque Populaire intended for her, and will take over the helm of this high-performance Imoca (60-foot monohull) for two years, thanks to the partnership of L'Occitane en Provence.

🇫🇷 "I am super happy and proud to announce that my Vendée Globe 2024 project is relaunched! Thanks to L'Occitane en Provence whose colors I will wear and Alex Thomson who accompanies me To learn more, click on the link below https://t.co/uWERLj9VKD pic.twitter.com/Sv9m4vMHOm

— Clarisse Crémer (@ClaSurLAtlantiq) April 19, 2023

At the beginning of February, the young woman, 12th in the last Vendée Globe and mother of a little girl in November, had plunged the world of sailing into embarrassment by announcing that she had been dropped by her sponsor because of her pregnancy.

Indeed, new qualification rules for the Vendée Globe take into account participation in a series of races upstream, and Banque Populaire was concerned about the accumulated delay compared to its competitors.

Faced with the prospect of being on the pontoon of Les Sables d'Olonne (west of the France) in November 2024 only to greet the departure of her companion Tanguy Le Turquais, whose own Vendée Globe project was not disrupted by the birth of their daughter, Clarisse Crémer took up the pen.

"There was clearly a desire to spark debate," said in an interview with AFP the graduate of the famous HEC business school, who had embarked on sailing thanks to the support of a small community gathered on social networks.

01:27

Lively controversy

Objective achieved: despite the embarrassed silence of a large part of the still very male world of skippers, the controversy was so lively that Banque Populaire, recognized partner of the world of sailing, quickly threw in the towel.

Clarisse Crémer remained silent. On the one hand "not to focus the debate on (her) person" and on the other hand because she very quickly invested herself full-time in a new project.

First, Alex Thomson called her. The 49-year-old British sailor, who started managing his team after five participations in the Vendée Globe, bought in March the Imoca, which the French banking group had acquired last year for Clarisse Crémer.

Then contact was made with L'Occitane, who had accompanied the French sailor Armel Tripon, 11th in the last Vendée Globe.

"Gender equality and the development of female leadership are very important values for us," Adrien Geiger, chief executive of the cosmetics company, told AFP.

"We embarked on this story by saying that Clarisse had to do the Vendée Globe," he added, referring to the four-month parental leave he himself took last year.

"Let it be possible"

"It was the three cornerstones of the project: a team, a boat, a sponsor," said the sailor, who now intends to embark on a "race against time" to chain the miles necessary for her selection.

On this point, the race management, which seemed intransigent in February, softened its speech, suggesting that everything would be done to allow Clarisse Crémer to take the start and promising above all to revise its rules for the 2028 edition.

Aware of having become a symbol, the Frenchwoman is determined to take advantage of her media coverage to advance the debate on motherhood in the coming years.

"Parenthood does not have at all the same consequence on a career, especially sports, for a man and for a woman," she said. "We are not asking for everything to be the same, we are asking for it to be possible, for motherhood not to be a crippling obstacle."

But for now, she says she is "focused on the athlete" and eager to return to sailing. His foiling sailboat, still under construction, is due to be relaunched in June and the first race is scheduled for July.

On this boat, French skipper Charlie Dalin won the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2019 and finished second in the last Vendée Globe. "It's a great tool, super reliable," said the competitor who intends to make her daughter proud by going to "annoy the best".

With AFP

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