Diego Botín and Florian Trittel, the Paris 2024 49er gold medallists who also drive Spain's SailGP entry, have confirmed an ambitious multi-platform commitment through to the end of the decade: a fresh America's Cup campaign alongside a French syndicate, a continued push in the Rolex SailGP Championship, and a return to Olympic 49er duty for LA28.
The trio of programmes, confirmed in a Sail-World report that has been picked up by multiple outlets across March and April 2026, underlines the extent to which the foiling revolution has collapsed the separation between SailGP, Cup sailing and Olympic dinghy racing. Botín and Trittel are already at the top of their discipline — the 49er skiff — and remain the natural anchor of any Spanish Olympic hopes, but their on-foil commitments at SailGP have marked them out as a pair capable of operating across platforms.
The America's Cup component has raised eyebrows within the fleet. Sail-World reported the Spaniards would "join a French AC team," effectively forming a bilateral Spanish-French cooperation that unlocks resources Spain has not traditionally brought to the Cup stage. It will be the first Cup campaign Botín has led from the front cockpit, and if the French challenger secures its nominated venue and timeline, it would pit the Spaniards against British, Italian and New Zealand syndicates in the next Cup cycle.
The SailGP piece remains the financial backbone of the trio's season. Spain has become a genuine title threat in the Rolex SailGP Championship, finishing second at the Rio Sail Grand Prix last weekend and winning the New York event during season five. The Flying Roos reclaimed the overall series lead at Rio, but Botín's side is very much in the conversation heading into the Sydney replay and the SailGP mid-season championship.
For LA28, the 49er push reinforces Spain's defence of its Olympic title. The pair dominated the class in Marseille, and despite the additional demands of their foiling programmes, both have publicly insisted that the Olympic cycle remains non-negotiable.
The combined programme is unprecedented in its scope. Traditionally, top-class campaigners have chosen one of the three platforms — Cup, SailGP, Olympics — and committed fully. Botín and Trittel are now attempting all three simultaneously, with the calendar overlaps that implies. It is a bet that sailing's increasing cross-discipline technical overlap makes such a triple commitment viable. The next two seasons will determine whether they are right.