The Hempel World Cup comes to Biscayne Bay

Jan. 19 marks the beginning of an annual regatta off the coast of Coconut Grove, a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Over 200 sailors from 50 different nations will be racing in the Hempel World Cup Series Miami, the only such race in North America.

The opening races will take place between Monday and Thursday, leading to the medal races for the top three boats in each class on Saturday. U.S. athletes will be competing in all races except the Laser.

In addition, the event includes a mixed, two-person offshore keelboat competition, similar to the one that will debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The cup has partnered with the Southern Ocean Racing Conference, a Florida non-profit that manages the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, for that race. It will begin on Thursday south of Port Everglades, ending 160 miles later in Key West.

Although most of the races will be too far offshore to see, fans will be able to watch a livestream as well as highlights for the medal races through the World Sailing YouTube Channel. They also have the option of watching the races on a Jumbotron in Regatta Park, where there will be food and other activities.

Click here for more on the week’s schedule.

Natalia Clement

Natalia Clement is a senior journalism student at FIU. She was born in Bogota, Colombia, but was raised in Miami. Her passion for journalism began in elementary school as a school news anchor and continued all the way into college. She enjoys written journalism the most, but also finds broadcasting interesting. She is the copy editor for Caplin News and also interns at Univision. Natalia looks forward to graduating in the summer. Her ultimate goal is to move to New York to pursue her career as a journalist.

Julia Tsairis

Julia Tsairis is a senior broadcast journalism student at Florida International University. She was born and raised in Miami. Her passion for journalism started out very young as a simple hobby and has blossomed. In addition to her work as a journalist, she enjoys photography and videography and has won many awards for her work. She also enjoys networking in the FIU community. Julia looks forward to achieving her ultimate goal of being able to travel the world, using journalism to help expose the injustices that occur in other countries.