THE LARGEST SAILING RACE IN THE WORLD
Trieste, 1 - 12 October 2025
Trieste, 1 - 12 October 2025
Barcolana - News01.09.21
#WomenInSailing - Giovanna Micol
Yachtswoman, architect, Olympian, mother. Giovanna Micol is closely linked to the sea.
“Educate girls and boys in the same way: the differences are to do with character, not gender”.
“Educate girls and boys in the same way: the differences are to do with character, not gender”.
“I am an architect, but I knew that sailing would always be part of my life. I didn’t know how, but when I understood it, I arrived at the Olympics”.
Giovanna Micol is a yachtswoman and an architect: “Today the percentage of commitment has been reversed; I spend more time engineering and on construction sites than out at sea, and this too is a very competitive and male-dominated world. I don’t mean the engineering part, but the work supervision part: when you arrive on a construction site you must first get respect through your competence and determination, then you will be listened to”.
At the Olympics Giovanna Micol competed in an all-female crew, with Giulia Conti, and then prepared, with Lorenzo Bressani, an Olympic campaign in Nacra 17, mixed crew: “It is an interesting point that in Nacra 17 the man is at the helm and the woman is given the harder, more athletic part of the navigation, at the bow: it is a great and symbolic challenge. What I have learned from the Olympic class is that when you compete for a really important goal, gender disparity tends to evaporate: when you are motivated for a common goal, there is equality”.
In offshore sailing, however, the subject of the “quotas for women” is highly topical, namely the fact of obligatorily introducing a minimum number of women: “The concept of quotas for women must be seen as one would look at a start-up project: a means to begin, to introduce the subject and show that it can be done, until the matter becomes normal, internalized, easy to implement. Today we need associations, initiatives, projects that favour the presence of women in offshore sailing, even in the America’s Cup, and it must go on until this ceases to be a subject or an issue anymore, but has become natural”.
Giovanna Micol is also a mother, to both a boy and a girl: “We are introducing both Mattia and Olivia to the sea and sailing in the same way, and there is no difference in our behaviour or way of doing things. The only difference is their personal rapport with the sea: Mattia jumps into things, Olivia is more of a perfectionist. It’s a question of character and not of gender and this, in the end, is the key!”.
Giovanna Micol is a yachtswoman and an architect: “Today the percentage of commitment has been reversed; I spend more time engineering and on construction sites than out at sea, and this too is a very competitive and male-dominated world. I don’t mean the engineering part, but the work supervision part: when you arrive on a construction site you must first get respect through your competence and determination, then you will be listened to”.
At the Olympics Giovanna Micol competed in an all-female crew, with Giulia Conti, and then prepared, with Lorenzo Bressani, an Olympic campaign in Nacra 17, mixed crew: “It is an interesting point that in Nacra 17 the man is at the helm and the woman is given the harder, more athletic part of the navigation, at the bow: it is a great and symbolic challenge. What I have learned from the Olympic class is that when you compete for a really important goal, gender disparity tends to evaporate: when you are motivated for a common goal, there is equality”.
In offshore sailing, however, the subject of the “quotas for women” is highly topical, namely the fact of obligatorily introducing a minimum number of women: “The concept of quotas for women must be seen as one would look at a start-up project: a means to begin, to introduce the subject and show that it can be done, until the matter becomes normal, internalized, easy to implement. Today we need associations, initiatives, projects that favour the presence of women in offshore sailing, even in the America’s Cup, and it must go on until this ceases to be a subject or an issue anymore, but has become natural”.
Giovanna Micol is also a mother, to both a boy and a girl: “We are introducing both Mattia and Olivia to the sea and sailing in the same way, and there is no difference in our behaviour or way of doing things. The only difference is their personal rapport with the sea: Mattia jumps into things, Olivia is more of a perfectionist. It’s a question of character and not of gender and this, in the end, is the key!”.
