Controversy as Clarisse Cremer is dropped ahead of Vendée Globe
Long-term offshore sailing sponsor Banque Populaire has come under fire after it dropped skipper Clarisse Cremer – who has recently given birth to her first child – ahead of the Vendée Globe 2024.
Banque Populaire said Cremer’s maternity leave meant she’d not been able to log enough qualifying miles to guarantee her race entry. But critics pointed to other skippers with similar or less mileage, some with projects launched more recently than Cremer’s, plus the fact that there are two seasons still to go before the race start.
The resulting row hit the headlines in France, with widespread criticism of Banque Populaire’s decision, including from France’s Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera and from Christelle Morançais, president of the Pays de la Loire region, partner of the Vendée Globe.
The race organisers, meanwhile, said they could not bend the qualifying rules to allow for Cremer’s maternity leave “when the selection process has already begun”.
Cremer broke the news on social media, saying she had told her sponsors in February 2021 that she planned to start a family: “They still chose me for this new Vendée Globe and communicated our mutual commitment in autumn 2021.”
But she said: “I learned last Friday that Banque Populaire had finally decided to replace me. By their decision, and despite my constant will, I will not be part of the Vendée Globe 2024. Vendée Globe rules…require all skippers to compete based on race miles. On this note, I of course fell behind
