Barclay: The underdog / America’s Cup

What is it about the underdog that compels us to support them? Is it that we relate to the underdog at a personal level and so we want to see them succeed?

Many do succeed. Cassius Clay was a 7-1 underdog in 1964 when he took on Sonny Listen for the heavyweight championship of the world; Seabiscuit, the unremarkable thoroughbred that lost his first seventeen races, went on to capture the heart of America; and Susan Boyle, the unpolished 47-year-old woman performing on Britain’s Got Talent — more than 64 million people have now seen the inspiring video clip of her turning Simon Cowell’s smirk into a smile.

May 9, 2013, will forever be etched into our minds as the day we lost Andrew “Bart” Simpson. It affected all of us in some way, but nowhere near as much or as deeply as the Artemis Racing team. They were heartbroken and devastated by what happened.

The team didn’t know if it could compete. In fact, they didn’t know if they wanted to compete. But over the past 10 weeks that feeling has changed for several reasons: for Bart, for team owner Torbjörn Törnqvist, for the fans and most importantly for themselves and their families – they did not want the story to end on May 9.

Part of the journey back required the team being confident in their new boat. The other teams assisted with actual load data (including what was learned from the ORACLE TEAM USA capsize) and my information is that Artemis Racing tested Big Blue up to 120 percent with some of those loads! For those who have seen the photos of Big Blue being bent, distorted, pulled and pushed, it was clearly a rigorous process and she came through with flying colors.

Now, Artemis Racing is back and was out foiling on day one. Inspirational! Big Blue and the team look amazing. Today will be the third day in a row they are out testing and tuning her for racing.
When will they race? Will they be competitive? I think we all want them to do well.

Paul Cayard calls it “climbing a mountain” and Artemis Racing has been doing just that. Step by step. They are not at the top, but they are close! I look forward to seeing them racing. I look forward to seeing them atop the mountain.

Stephen Barclay
CEO, America’s Cup Event Authority