Two drivers down: Who steers the US at Geneva SailGP?

Sport can turn quickly, and cruelly. Little more than a week ago, the US SailGP Team was celebrating victory in Valencia, their second win of the season after Sydney and enough to put them in third overall. Now they head to Geneva without a driver.

First came news that Taylor Canfield had sustained an “upper body injury” and would miss this weekend's Rolex Switzerland Sail Grand Prix. The obvious answer was reserve Harry Melges IV, brought in for exactly this kind of moment. Then, barely a day later, came a second statement: Melges would also be unavailable after suffering a “leg injury”. When it rains, it pours.

After ten of 13 events, the Americans sit in third on 56 points. That's one clear of Nathan Outteridge's Artemis and five ahead of Emirates GBR. As far as we know, despite shifting to four-boat event finals, it’s only the top three who will reach the Grand Final. With just Geneva, Dubai and Abu Dhabi left, there's little room for a lost weekend.

Nor is it as simple as picking a name. Under SailGP's new athlete transfer framework, only registered athletes can race. Emergency registrations and loans are permitted for medical reasons when no replacement is available. Borrowing from another team needs that team's agreement and a disclosed fee.

Andrew Campbell would provide continuity. He's the team's strategist, a three-time America's Cup sailor with American Magic and Oracle Team USA, and a Beijing 2008 Olympian in the Laser. He knows the crew and the boat inside out, and there's precedent too: Canfield himself made the jump from flight controller to driver. The catch is that Campbell has never driven in the league, and moving him leaves a hole in the strategist's seat, though Louisa Nordstrom is on the roster to fill it.

Flight controller Hans Henken and wing trimmer Michael Menninger are the other in-house options. Moving either of them, though, would mean reshuffling a crew that has just won in Valencia.

The timing with Martine Grael is almost uncanny. Days ago she declared herself "officially unemployed" after leaving Mubadala Brazil. She brings more than 20 events at the wheel of an F50, plus a fleet race win in New York last year. That said, Brazil sit last in the standings, and her contractual and registration status is far from clear.

Of drivers currently in the league, Ruggero Tita is the standout. The two-time Olympic champion drove Red Bull Italy last season, including Geneva, and remains its alternate driver. But would Italy lend a rival its back-up in the middle of a season?

Then there's Italy's CEO. Jimmy Spithill drove the US boat for two seasons until new owners replaced him with Canfield in 2023. The chances of him climbing back aboard for the Americans? Somewhere around hell freezing over.

Jordi Xammar drove Spain for most of Season 3 and was 470 world champion in 2024. However, he hasn't raced an F50 in more than three years, and he'd be an odd fit for a team that sells itself as all-American.

Rome Kirby, who drove the US in SailGP's inaugural 2019 season, ticks the nationality box, but his last season as a SailGP driver was seven years ago. Riley Gibbs, who sailed with the US team in 2019, is a homegrown alternative, but he's unproven as a SailGP driver.

There's another factor in play. Lake Geneva has a reputation for light, fickle breezes, and crews are expected to drop from six to four for the conditions. If the wind stays light, the racing could look very different from a typical SailGP weekend.

Light-air F50 racing is still demanding. Getting up on the foils, staying there and making clean manoeuvres at low speed takes real skill, and any time off the foils is costly. But in a light-wind event, reading the shifts and finding pressure can matter as much as raw boat-handling, and that broadens the field of credible candidates.

It plays to Campbell's strengths as a strategist and former Laser Olympian, and it would suit dinghy specialists like Grael and Xammar too.

With days to go, the safe bet is an internal promotion, choosing continuity over star power. Grael's sudden availability makes it a far more interesting call, though. Who would you put on the wheel? Let us know in the comments below.