The skipper sponsor announced Thursday separating from her, believing that the recently become mother who became a mother was unable to qualify for the next edition of the race.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
A stretch that does not pass. The president of the famous sailing race for the Vendée Globe, Alain Leboeuf, criticized the decision of the Banque Populaire on Friday, February 3, to separate from his navigator Clarisse to cream after his maternity, qualifying this decision as a “rushed”.
“I do not understand how we were able to make a decision like that (…). There are many races and Clarisse can do very well to be on the starting line in 2024, I really want it”, said Mr. Leboeuf in an interview with the France-Presse agency. He added: “Banque Populaire would like to be selected before everyone else. It is not possible. We cannot go around the world alone on the oceans without there being intermediate stages.”
Thursday, Banque Populaire announced to separate from the 33 -year -old navigator, believing that she was unable to qualify for the Vendée Globe due to the selection rules set up for the next edition.
rules which “prohibit a woman from having a child”
Concretely, skippers who do not have a new boat now have the obligation to participate in a certain number of qualifying races until departure to accumulate miles allowing to decide between the candidates if their number is more than 40.
Clarisse Crémer, arrival 12th of the last Vendée Globe, became a mother in December 2022. She was therefore unable to participate in another qualifying race at this stage and now accuses a delay which is not cattle, according to her sponsor.
In a message broadcast on Thursday, the navigator deplored being “left to the platform” by her sponsor and regretted that “the rules chosen by the Vendée Globe prohibit a woman from having a child”.
During a press conference given Thursday, Ronan Lucas, director of the Banque Populaire team, tried to justify this decision: “We are at 0 thousand and those ahead of us are 1,600. These people will do the same races as us, so we will never catch up with them … And it is 42, 43 people who are in front. “
The sponsor of the navigator assured having made “all his possible” with the organizers to develop the regulations or “obtain the guarantee of a Wild Card” (the allocation of an invitation to a competition for a sportsman unskilled), without success, and has decided to separate from Clarisse Crémer “with regard to human and financial investments” from a project such as the Vendée Globe.
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“These regulations were voted in 2020, everyone knew him. We cannot change the rule of the game during the game,” reacted Alain Leboeuf on Friday, believing that the Wild Card N ‘was not intended to be used before “the end of the selection process” in June 2024.
On social networks, many sportsmen brought their support to Clarisse Crémer Friday, such as the Judoka Clarisse Agbégnénou, the recorder Mélina Robert-Michon or the navigator Camille Lecointre.
The tenth edition of the Vendée Globe will start from Sables-d’Olonne on November 10, 2024. During the 2020-2021 edition, 6 of the 33 competitors on the starting line were women.