America’s Cup has Got Game

The America’s Cup repeatedly claims to have the best sailors, which was once an unspoken truth. But in the land of marketing, educating the non-sailing public becomes a necessity. However, once we make claims, don’t we have need some sort of metric?

The Rio 2016 Olympic Games has delivered this metric in spades, as every America’s Cup sailor competing came away with a medal. Talk about confirmation.

Emirates Team New Zealand: Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) locked up the gold medal ahead of the 49er Men Medal Race, which they went out and won anyway, stamping their authority on the class and regatta.

Artemis Racing: Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen came into the 49er Men Medal Race in the bronze position, and sailed away with a silver, the best result they could have hoped for on the day.

Land Rover BAR: Giles Scott (GBR) won a gold medal in the Finn class, sealing the victory before the Medal Race.

SoftBank Team Japan: Jason Waterhouse (AUS) won a silver medal in mixed Nacra 17 catamaran, sailing with his cousin Lisa Darmanin.

Okay, the America’s Cup has got game.