Diego Botín: The Spaniard chasing sailing's triple crown

Born on Christmas Day 1993 in the sailing city of Santander, Diego Botín seems to have been destined for the water from the very start. The Spaniard has gone on to enjoy a career that few in the sport can match, achieving Olympic gold and a SailGP Season Championship within the space of a month.

Born into a sailing family, sailing was always going to be in his blood. What has followed is a career that reads like a checklist of the sport's biggest events, a checklist with one box still lying unticked - The America's Cup.

Botín’s first rise in the sailing ranks was on the Olympic circuit in the 49er, the equipment that’s been used for the Men’s Skiff event since Sydney 2000.

It’s an event with a good showing from Spain, Iker Martínez and Xabier Fernández picked up gold and silver medals in Athens and Beijing respectively, paving the way to inspire a young Diego Botín to do the same.

Diego first represented his nation on the Olympic stage at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games alongside his crew Iago López. The pair finished ninth. They went on to improve on that result at the Tokyo 2020 Games, finishing tantalisingly close to the podium in an agonising but impressive fourth place behind fellow SailGP drivers Dylan Fletcher, Peter Burling and Erik Heil.

Following Tokyo, Botín paired up with Florian Trittel in the 49er - he himself coming off the back of a sixth-place finish in Tokyo in the Nacra 17 Mixed Multihull event. A crew partnership that is sure to go down in sailing history as one of the strongest to grace the sport.

Botín and Trittel, as a fresh Olympic partnership, took it all the way at the Paris 2024 Games and snatched gold in an Olympic ‘quad’ that was only three years long due to the pandemic.

In the very same month, prior to their Olympic gold, Botín and Trittel played pivotal roles in Los Gallos’ ascension to the top of SailGP season four.

A month of Spanish sporting dominance, with the national team winning the UEFA European Football Championship and Carlos Alcaraz sweeping up a second Wimbledon title, Los Gallos took part in the winner-takes-all season grand final in San Francisco Bay and won. The title gained the team an eye-watering $2 million USD prize pot.

Despite earning all of his accolades as a Spaniard, Diego also holds a French passport, courtesy of his mother. This opened up a unique opportunity for the Olympic medallist to have a crack at the triple crown of sailing. An Olympic gold medal, SailGP Season Championship and The America’s Cup. Something only Tom Slingsby has achieved as an active sailor in each campaign.

Diego and Florian are key members of the French America’s Cup outfit, La Roche-Posay Racing Team, with Botín co-helming alongside France SailGP driver Quentin Delapierre.

Few sailors can claim to have reached the summit of three different disciplines, but Diego Botín is closing in on exactly that. An Olympic gold medal and a SailGP title are already in the trophy cabinet, and only the America's Cup itself stands between him and a feat matched only by Tom Slingsby.

Botín's dual French nationality has handed him a route into the Cup, whether that translates into the third piece of his triple crown remains to be seen.