America’s Cup competitor dies at 27

The 8-person crew on the AC75 for the 37th America’s Cup had four people sailing the boat, and four people on cycles to power the systems. The cyclors were mostly not known within the sailing community, having excelled outside of the sport, but tragedy has brought to life a unique contributor in the 2024 competition:

Austin Regier, a national champion rower for the University of Washington men’s rowing team who went on to compete in the America’s Cup, died in a free-diving accident in the Philippines on Friday (Nov. 15). Regier was 27.

Regier spent most of the past year in Barcelona, Spain, training for the America’s Cup competition and was on a six-week trip to Southeast Asia before planning to come back to Seattle.

Regier, often described as kind, engaging and humble, made friends everywhere he went, said his parents, Monte and Christie Regier.

“The easy thing would have been to go to Barcelona, do the America’s Cup and not engage in anything,” Monte said. “The first thing he did when he got there was go find a (church) youth group to get involved in and start talking with kids.” – Full report