Born in Trieste in 1988, Francesca Clapcich is an Italian Olympic sailor. From small keelboats to round-the-world in a crew, Francesca is one of the few Italian sailors to have participated in the Ocean Race, the regatta that every three years takes international crews around the globe.
Enlisted for nine years in the air force, Francesca participated in two Olympics: in 2012 in single in the Laser class; in 2016 in the 49er FX class, together with Giulia Conti, with whom the previous year she had won the 49er FX world, European and Italian championships. In 2015 Francesca received the “Golden Collar” for sporting merit, the highest recognition conferred by CONI, the Italian National Olympic Committee.
Since 2017, Francesca has been involved in sailing projects based on sustainability: in 2017, she took part in the then Ocean Race and made her first round-the-world trip aboard the VO65 Turn the Tide on Plastic, of the Mirpuri Foundation, with the aim of raising awareness of the need to reduce the use of this material; in early 2023, she joined the crew 11th Hour Racing – a team created to promote environmental protection – and started her second round-the-world tour in the IMOCA class.