JUL 2024

World Champion, a dream longtime in the making

Hello everyone,

Some years build you, and some years reward you. 2024 was both, and it ends with a sentence I have dreamed of writing since I was a kid: I am a World Champion.

But it didn't start that way.

A hard start, the ISAF qualifiers

The season opened in Long Beach with the ISAF Youth Worlds qualifier, four days of tight racing and not the result I was fighting for. Still too light, still short of the top spot, a disappointing outcome to swallow. Time to work even harder.

Alicante, my first medal bib

At the Comunitat Valenciana Olympic Week, I found myself in a new situation: wearing the leader's bib going into the final day. Managing that pressure, staying on my process while everyone chased, and closing it out for my first international win taught me something no training camp could: I know how to win when it counts.

Europeans in Slovenia, the comeback

The ILCA 4 Europeans handed me the hardest first day possible: two yellow flags dropped me to 152nd. The comeback was on. Over the next days I climbed all the way back to the top 10, race by race, holding it almost to the finish before slipping on the last day. Frustrating final scoreline, but the real lesson of that week was risk management, learning to manage an entire regatta and not just each race. That lesson would pay off very soon.

The quiet block

May and June were spent mostly on land: my Première exams at lycée, long days of studying, and a physical build in the gym. Not glamorous, but champions are built in these weeks too. In the middle of it, a day at the SailGP Inspire program reminded me where the sport can lead, one day, I dream of being a driver.

World Champion, Viana do Castelo

Then came the week everything was built for. The 2024 ILCA 4 Youth World Championship, 277 sailors from around the world, and the mindset built over years finally coming together. Race after race I stayed on my process, managed the risks, and sailed my own regatta. A dream come true, a long time in the making, and I could not have imagined winning it in any better way. Thank you Bernardo for believing from the beginning, and Dewi for the coaching that week. World Champion. I will never get tired of those words.

A glimpse of what's next

The reward came fast. Two weeks after Viana, I was invited to Sarah Douglas's Olympic send-off camp, her final training block before Paris, alongside the best sailors in the country, hopping in the ILCA 6 to help get her ready. Training next to an Olympian in her last days of preparation showed me exactly what the level I'm chasing looks like up close, and that it's real, and reachable.

Then I lined up at the ILCA 6 Europeans in Ireland, 247 boats, a bigger rig, a taller fleet. I'm not strong enough for it yet, and the scoreline showed it, but there were real moments: winning races, sitting top 20 on day three. The next chapter has begun.

Thank you to my family, my coaches, my training partners, and everyone who believed. It takes a village, and this title belongs to all of it.

— Carlos