Among the 40 skippers who will start the Vendée Globe on November 10, there are 14 foreigners with, for the first time, a Chinese sailor. Born in the mountains, Jingkun Xu should have taken over his parents’ farm one day. But at age 12, he lost his left arm while handling fireworks. On the east coast of the country, he discovered a passion for sailing: “It seems like it was fate, it was the sail that chose me and gave me the courage to go further.“
In 2008, he participated in the Paralympic Games in Beijing. Then, he moved to France in Port-la-Forêt. “Everything is different here, the culture, the working methods, the language first of all“, underlines Jingkun Xu. But the sailor hopes to encourage vocations: “In China, more and more young people are starting to learn sailing from a young age so maybe one day we could see more Chinese in this kind of racing.“
For his first participation aboardan Imoca launched in 2007 (the one with which Armel Le Cléac’h finished second in 2009), returning to Les Sables d’Olonne would already be a huge victory. Jingkun Xu is the second Asian skipper present in the Vendée Globe after the Japanese Kojiro Shiraishi (already present in 2020).
Eleven different nationalities in this 10th edition
“I am extremely happy that nations which do not have a great maritime past are interested in this racerejoices Vendée Globe race director Hubert Lemonnier, the Vendée Globe is also that. The success is that it shines in Sables d’Olonne, Vendée, France, Europe and the whole world. We are trying to work in this direction because I think it is in everyone’s interest to have international skippers.”
Of the forty skippers who will be at the start on Sunday November 10, there will be fourteen foreigners and eleven different nationalities.
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