One day, one woman: Manon Audinet, Orient Express – L’Oréal Racing Team skipper
In celebration of International Women’s Rights Day on 8 March, this week we are highlighting some of the female talent at the heart of the French Orient Express Racing Team. Today, we feature Manon Audinet from La Rochelle, skipper of the Orient Express - L'Oréal Racing Team AC40 that the French women’s team will race at the inaugural edition of the Women's America's Cup from 5-15 October in Barcelona.
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MEET MANON
What is your role at Orient Express Racing Team?
As skipper of the French Women's America's Cup project, my mission is to lead the women's team to the highest level and win this historic first edition. I'm at the Orient Express Racing Team base in Barcelona every day, working with the challenger team and undergoing fast-track training. Then I pass on the knowledge I've gained to my team and we train together during one-week sessions every month, trying to learn as quickly as possible.
Where does your passion for the sea come from?
My love of the sea stems from my childhood – I've always been drawn to the ocean whether on the beach with my family or on our boat. There's something about being outdoors, feeling the breeze, enjoying the sun, with friends, that makes me feel alive and happy. What's more, the ocean has opened a world of exploration for me, allowing me to discover new places and new cultures. The sea is not just a place for me - it's my happy place, my playground, and an inexhaustible source of adventure.
What is your message on International Women's Day? Specifically to young women?
International Women's Day is a celebration of your strength, resilience and unlimited potential. In your life, and every day, remember that your dreams are valid, that your voice counts and that your actions can bring about change. Embrace your individuality, follow your passions, and never doubt your abilities. You have the power to break down barriers, shatter stereotypes and carve your own path to success. Believe in yourself, enjoy the journey, and never underestimate the impact you can have. I am also happy to work on projects with men. Together, we can build a more inclusive and equal future for everyone.
What does it mean to you to take your place as a female sailor?
I get an incredible feeling of strength from knowing that I can tackle anything. By being present, doing what I have to do, I show other women and girls that we have our place everywhere. It's really special! It's not just about me - it's about being part of a community of women who support and encourage each other. Being a woman in this environment fills me with pride, purpose and a lot of passion!
What are the main challenges to achieving greater parity between men and women in your workplace?
In our sport, racing foiling boats, there is one major challenge that we face: the need for more training time to reduce the experience gap between men and women. By devoting more time to training, we can ensure that women have the same opportunities to excel and perform as men. This is what K-Challenge, along with Team France and partners such as Nextworld and L'Oréal Groupe, are doing with the Women’s Pathway, a programme that has enabled us to train for almost a year now, both on the water and on the simulator. This support is very important to us and will help us to progress. And with the same skill set, why not imagine a mixed gender crew on board the AC75 for the next America’s Cup?
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BIOGRAPHY
A skilled catamaran specialist who has been racing on the SailGP circuit with the France SailGP Team since the start of season 3, Manon Audinet is now preparing to take on another major challenge: leading the Orient Express - L'Oréal Racing Team as skipper to victory in the first ever Women's America's Cup.
Originally from La Rochelle where she grew up, Manon didn't start sailing as a child. "My father sailed when he was young, then sailed on his father's boat. He always liked it, unlike my mother — my mother doesn't hate sailing, she's just never done it. My little brother also did a bit as a child. It didn't appeal to me at all, even though I loved going out on my grandfather's boat at the weekend," she recalls.
"Before that, I played tennis, but it was a disaster, then three or four years of swimming. I liked that and then I tried horse-riding, but that was also a failure," jokes Manon, who first sailed a catamaran at the age of 11 motivated by the mother of a friend who worked at the sailing club in La Rochelle. She really got to grips with the sport the following year thanks to a great instructor who trained the sports catamaran team year round. He invited her to join the team. Manon accepted with the support of her parents, "without knowing what it would lead to".
Things quickly took off for the young member of St Georges Voile, who started competing at the age of 12 on a small catamaran in mixed doubles. Although she wasn't originally a competitive sailor, she took to the game from the start: "We won our first regatta. I thought it was great", Manon confides, finding her way and pursuing it. From the age of 12 to 19 she sailed sport catamarans in the Youth and Senior classes, which enabled her to learn to sail daggerboard boats that required a little more fine-tuning. At the same time she won a string of national podiums in the Youth category and perfected her apprenticeship on bigger boats, including Formula 18s, an experience that was "super formative and enabled me to learn more things more quickly".
Although the catamaran wasn't an Olympic sport at the time, she was accepted into the Sports Studies class and benefited from a modified timetable, without having to follow as rigorous a training programme as the others. This enabled her to free up time to train and do physical preparation alongside her schooling, which took her to a Bac ES and then an IUT Tech de Co. "School was never my passion. I started university just as I was about to embark on an Olympic campaign, but I needed to study if my dual project was to go well. I was lucky enough to come across some super understanding professors who helped me a lot and followed what I was doing in terms of sport. I was able to split my final year, which went really well."
Manon's first Olympic campaign was in the Nacra 17, a class she turned to in 2013 with Moana Vaireaux, her Hobie 16 coach. "When I was younger, there were no catamarans at the Games apart from the Tornado, which wasn't suitable for women. I dreamed about it but I didn't know how I could do it one day. The door was opened with the Nacra 17," says Manon, who joined the French team in her first year alongside Billy Besson and Marie Riou, for whom she and Moana were substitutes for Rio 2016. A year and a half into their second Olympic preparation, the duo decided to go their separate ways. Manon then contacted Quentin Delapierre, with whom she had sailed when she was 13-14 years old and subsequently met again on the Tour Voile. "We had a week's training, which went really well. It was a bit daring to take the plunge a year before the selections for Tokyo 2020. We did it in sprint mode, but I really had Tokyo in mind and I thought that Quentin was potentially the right man to pull off the heist."
Selected for the Olympics, Manon and Quentin were delighted to take up the ambitious challenge and racked up a string of good results — winner of the World Cup in Enoshima, 4th in the World Championships, 2nd in the European Championships — before the duo performed below expectations at the Games, finishing 8th. "We believed we could do it. We were disappointed, but it's part of our career and it made us stronger afterwards", she says, delighted to have been one of the first women to fly a catamaran on the water and to have been able to realise her dream. After a few months of training the following winter, Manon and Quentin decided to throw in the towel before the first event of the season, as they were no longer enjoying sailing the boat and wanted to see if they could find happiness elsewhere. On a personal level, during the Nacra years Manon met Jason Saunders, now her partner and father of their child.
The quest for sailing happiness culminated in 2022, in SailGP, the prestigious circuit on which Manon joined Quentin a few months after his arrival at the helm of the French F50. Selected alongside Amélie Riou, the sailor from La Rochelle joined the France SailGP Team at the start of season 3 in Bermuda, at the same time as Kevin Peponnet. Her career then took on a new dimension. "I was on a circuit which made me dream. Racing an F50 was clearly a goal, even if I wasn't very keen on the system at the start, when the girls didn't have a place on board. As soon as we had it, it made sense because we're an integral part of the performance. And with this team, it's great", she comments. "It's a different kind of sailing, much more professional, with a lot of constraints linked to the fact that you don't have much time to train. Everything is superfast, and you have to perform very well by working in a different way to be at 100% as soon as you get onboard. It's complementary to what I've learnt in the Olympics, where you have months to train and fine-tune the little details. It's a bit confusing at first, but it's great to be working with a big team and sailing together."
Alongside SailGP, Manon is now the skipper of the AC40 Orient Express - L'Oréal Racing Team for the Women's America's Cup. A great source of pride for the young sailor, who used to watch the Cup on television with her father when she was younger. "I never thought the competition would one day be open to women. I dreamt about it, but I thought I wouldn't have a place in it. It's become a dream since the announcement of the creation of the Women's America's Cup. It's the ultimate thing that every woman sailor wants to do, the icing on the cake". The pre-selections began shortly after the announcement. Manon took part, pregnant. "Being pregnant allowed me to take a step back and reinforced the idea that I wanted to continue sailing at a high level. It came at the right time. I have no regrets. I feel like I belong here." She was selected alongside six other girls in December 2023. A great achievement for the young woman, who will be leading a crew of four people from different backgrounds for her first experience in a flying monohull. "SailGP has helped me to understand how these big machines work, with all their electronics and hydraulics, where there are hardly any bits left. There's a lot of overlap between the F50s and the AC40s in terms of using the boat and the data, even if the balance of the boats is a little different. And you can train on a simulator, which enriches things even more. I feel like I'm learning new things every day. I couldn't ask for a better way to progress in today's sailing world, and as a woman, it's great to have access to these projects, especially as a skipper," she enthuses. For Manon, taking part in the Women's America's Cup in this role is a real challenge "as we're more used to seeing a female helmswoman as a skipper", but she will be able to capitalise on the experience she gained on SailGP to help her team save time in its rapid preparation. "My aim is to potentially take the girls to victory in this first Women's America's Cup. It would be a crazy thing to do," she says.
Manon's other challenge, which she is taking on with Jason, is to reconcile her life as a couple, as a mother and as a top-level sportswoman. "It's a huge challenge, but it's really cool. We're lucky enough to have a baby that's pretty easy. We've been taking him everywhere since he was a toddler to get him used to seeing the world. He was only 10 days old when he came to Saint-Tropez for SailGP," she says. On a day-to-day basis, Manon and Jason can count on the support of a young girl, who looks after their baby in Barcelona as well as at the Sail Grand Prix. "I've known her since she was eight years old. She's great and passionate about sailing. In the event of any problems, my baby remains my priority, but it was important for us to be able to continue doing what we love, and the opportunity to be a skipper on the Cup doesn't come along 15 times in a lifetime. I think that if the parents are happy, the baby is happy too, whereas if they're frustrated, it's not very happy. I thought it was a cliché when mums said that their baby was an extra source of motivation, but it's true and it's really cool". Manon can also count on the support of her parents, who "help out a lot with the little one. I was lucky that they understood my passion and supported me all the way instead of pushing me to study. They made a lot of concessions so that I could succeed in setting up my projects. It's thanks to them that I'm where I am today."
A few months ago, Jason Saunders joined the Orient Express Racing Team and the France SailGP Team. "It's really great to be sailing with Jason on SailGP. It will be even more so when we can share victories together. When we sailed against each other, we were happy when one of us put in a performance, but the other was always a little disappointed, which is normal."
When she's not sailing, Manon tries to make the most of her free time to visit Barcelona with her family. "We go home with the little one and go out again to discover the city, which we don't know and which is really interesting. We're on the move and don't stay at home very often."
Date of birth: 12 February 1992
Place of birth: La Rochelle, France
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MANON AND THE AMERICA'S CUP
One America's Cup memory in particular: "The incredible comeback by the Americans against the New Zealanders. I remember watching the races at my sailing club in La Rochelle with all my friends. It was magical."
What the America's Cup means to her: "The America's Cup is really about excellence, sailing at the highest level. There are the best sailors, the best of the best in every field. And there's the historical aspect, because it's the oldest sporting competition, a magnificent challenge."