International panel of experts announced as judges of the 2024 World Sailing Awards

World Sailing Awards 2024 set to honour the sport's very best © World Sailing

World Sailing has announced the 11 global sporting figures who will form the judging panel for this year's World Sailing Awards.

Drawing on expertise from across sailing, sustainability and the maritime industries, the panel will be tasked with evaluating every entry and compiling a shortlist from which the winner will be decided.

The finalists will be announced on 16 October 2024.

A public vote will then be held to decide the winners.

The winners will be announced at a live gala award ceremony in Singapore on 5 November 2024 as part of the World Sailing Annual Conference.

Meet the Judges:

• Julie Duffus: An experienced sustainability professional, Julie currently leads on sustainability at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Her focus is on challenging strategies, management and strategic social, environmental, economic and ethical advice for a wide variety of international projects. She also works as a relationship manager with UN agencies and has a thorough understanding of how societies and their institutions, economies and environments interact to influence sustainable development and the adaptability of livelihoods and communities to both environmental and political change.

• Nuno Gomes: A passionate sailor, geologist, university lecturer and responsible for the Environmental Engineering Graduation at Universidade Católica de Angola, Nuno is also a board member at engineering and environment consulting company SOAPRO S.A in Angola where he is responsible for the renewable energy and environment projects. He is also a member of the Angolan National Olympic Committee, Vice President of the Angolan Nautical Sports Federation, Vice President of the African Sailing Confederation, and a member of the World Sailing Sustainability Commission.

• Sarah Kenny: A leading sports lawyer, Sarah is a Vice-President of World Sailing and the Chair of the Advisory Council of Sport Integrity Australia and a former director and Vice President of Australian Sailing and a past member of the selection panel for the successful Australian Olympic Sailing team for multiple Olympic Games.? She competed at an international level in windsurfing debuting as Sailboard Representative at the IYRU Women's World Championship. In recent years, Sarah has revived her international racing in the Windsurfer Class.

• Pippa Kenton-Page: Pippa won her first Olympic gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, after joining forces with previous gold medallists Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb in the Yngling team. She won gold at both the Cascais and Miami World Championships in 2007 and 2008, as well as winning the 2008 European Championships. Pippa capped off two phenomenal years with the award of an MBE in the 2009 New Year Honours. She now teaches and coaches children to race dinghies at Dubai Offshore Sailing Club, as well as serving as Executive Director of the International 29er Association and Race Coach.

• Santiago Lange: A previous winner of Rolex World Sailor of the Year, in 2016, Argentine Olympic sailor and naval architect, Santiago has represented his country at the Olympic Games seven times over 32 years, winning a gold and two bronze Olympic medals, along with winning four world champion titles. His gold medal at Rio 2016 was made even more remarkable after a battle with lung cancer in 2015. He has also competed in the Ocean Race and America's Cup.

• Lorraine McKenna: Sponsorship Director at 11th Hour Racing, Lorraine works closely with events, athletes and teams to ensure that sustainability goals are achieved. Before joining 11th Hour Racing in 2019, Lorraine spent eight years working in the sailing industry on marketing and sponsorships. Seeing first-hand the power of harnessing sporting platforms and athletes to communicate the message of sustainability and ocean stewardship, Lorraine knows the importance of collaborating with events and teams to maximise exposure, impact, and to help influence change within the sport and beyond.

• Andy Rice: Andy Rice has won championships as a helm and crew in many skiffs and dinghies including the 49er and International 14 classes. As a sailing journalist, he has reported on every major event from the Olympics to the America's Cup, The Ocean Race and the Vendée Globe. He works as a writer and live commentator at a range of keelboat, kiteboarding and wingfoiling events as well as most of the Olympic circuit. In 2020, in partnership with Olympic and America's Cup coach Hamish Willcox, Andy launched Road To Gold, an online programme that helps sailors and coaches assemble the building blocks of a world-beating sailing campaign.

• Cory Sertl: World Sailing Vice-President Cory Sertl competed for the United States, across three Olympic cycles and won the 1988 IYRU Women's World Championships in the 470 World Championship, and US Sailing Yachtswoman of the Year twice, in 1996 and 2001. Cory has served on the World Sailing Council for the past 12 years and was US Sailing President from 2019-2021. She remains extremely active within the sailing community, coaching, supporting event delivery and continues to race today from her home in Rhode Island.

• Susie Tomson: Susie started her career in marine and coastal resource management and since 2001 and has brought this experience to the sport's sector.?She has been involved in establishing and delivering sustainability programmes across sport including the Royal Yachting Association, two America's Cup teams, the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2014 Ryder Cup 2014. More recently, she carried out the environmental evaluation of the International and Para World Athletics in London

• Anne-Cécile Turner: Anne-Cécile is an award-winning sustainability expert with more than 20 years of experience on a global scale in sustainability, marketing, sponsorship and management. She has worked with some of the world's biggest names including NGOs, media outlets, sporting events and international brands. In 2008, she created Blueshift an agency specialised in sustainability consultancy and in 2011 she joined the Race for Water Foundation as director. She is co-founder of bloomUp (previously The SHIFT) a global sustainability agency which supports organisations in designing and implementing positive transformation for planet and people. She was also Sustainability Director of The Ocean Race for seven years and led the award-winning Racing with purpose programme and most recently Campaign Director of Sails of Change Foundation to develop programmes to accelerate nature conservation, including the Sports for Nature framework.

• Lijia Xu: China's first ever gold medallist in dinghy sailing, Lily competed in three Olympics, winning bronze in Beijing 2008 and gold at London 2012 - an achievement which won her the 2012 Rolex World Sailor of the Year award. Throughout her 20-year sporting career she won every major competition in China, Asia and the world. She is now working in the media world for international events including the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games, SailGP, The Ocean Race, the 2023 Allianz Sailing World Championships, and the 2024 Youth Sailing World Championships. She is also an active environmentalist, raising the awareness of Ocean Health.

The World Sailing Awards are a celebration of excellence, achievement and lifelong contribution within the sport over the past year.

Seven awards will be presented on the night, including the Rolex World Sailor of the Year, the highest award a sailor can receive in recognition of their outstanding achievement, the 11th Hour Racing Sustainability Award, the highest recognition of success in marine sustainability, and Team of the Year.

New this year is the Young World Sailor of the Year, which recognises the achievements of sailors under the age of 21, and the World Sailing Technology Award which builds on the legacy of the Boat of the Year award to share innovation within the sport. The President's Development Award and Beppe Croce Trophy will also be presented.

For the full details of the World Sailing Awards and to vote, visit the World Sailing website.