Clara Gravely comes up with best-ever international performance as she takes 8th position in ILCA 6
Kingston, April 26, 2025 – Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance from Chester, N.S., won the bronze medal in 49erFX at the second event of the 2025 Sailing Grand Slam Series, French Olympic Week, which was held April 21-26 in Hyères, FRA. A third Canadian also stood out in France as Clara Gravely from Toronto, ON, took 8th place in ILCA 6, her best-ever performance at an international event.
Saturday’s bronze medal in 49erFX was Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance’s second career podium at one of the five Sailing Gram Slam Series events. In 2022, they won a bronze medal at the Kiel Week competition. They also won a bronze medal at the 2021 49erFX European Championship, which is not part of the Sailing Gram Slam Series.
In their second competition since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance started the event with an 18th-place result, and they then made their way into the top 10 on day four, before qualifying for the Medal Race in third position.
And in the Medal Race held on Saturday, Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance defended their spot on the podium by finishing 5th, just ahead of the French team comprised of Lara Granier and Amélie Riou, who were 6th. Even if both teams collected the same amount of points overall, the Canadian squad won the tiebreaker by being the better team in the Medal Race. The Medal Race is the last race of a competition that is contested by the top 10 boats following the qualification races and at that point, points are doubled.
Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts from Belgium won gold, followed by Paris Henken and Helena Scutt from the USA.
“Finishing third overall is super nice for everyone back home who’s supporting us to be here”, said Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. “We have a quite dedicated team that we want to say thank you to. We would not be here without you guys.”
“It was such a tough and really long week”, they added. “We started off quite deep in the standings and then just tried to take feedback and chip away at the results race by race and, of course, not focusing on the results at all, but just on the process. But it felt great to do better as the week went on, and the conditions for the medal race today were amazing. We are flying home tomorrow and back to Canada to see everyone, and we’re really excited.”
Clara Gravely comes up a personal-best 8th place finish in ILCA 6
In ILCA 6, Clara Gravely finished eight overall at the French Olympic Week event, her first-ever top 10 result in an international competition.
Qualifying in 10th place to earn a spot in her first-ever Medal Race, Clara Gravely finished fifth on Saturday to gain two positions and take 8th place overall.
Her previous best performance was 14th at one of the Sailing Grand Slam Series events, Kiel Week, in 2021.
Chiara Benini Floriani from Italy, won gold, followed by 2024 ICLA 6 World Championship bronze medalist Emma Plasschaert from Belgium, and by Anna Munich from Denmark, who won a tiebreaker against 2024 ILCA 6 World Championship silver medalist Charlotte Rose from the USA.
Throughout the week, Clara Gravely was able to stay in the top 10 after each day of the competition.
“It’s a super big milestone for me,” said Clara Gravely. “I was super, super excited to be out there today. I took 5th place in the Medal Race, which moved me up to 8th overall. It’s the highest I could have moved in the race, so it was really cool to be able to go out and achieve what I wanted to achieve in my first-ever medal race.”
A total of eight Canadian sailors took part in the 2025 French Olympic Week event.
Canadian results at the 2025 French Olympic Week
49erFX (/38 teams)
BRONZE: *Antonia Lewin-Lafrance & Georgia Lewin-LaFrance (Chester, N.S.)
ILCA 6 (/72 sailors)
8. *Clara Gravely (Toronto, ON)
49er (/67 teams)
34. *Will Jones (Burlington, ON) & Arie Moffat (Kingston, ON)
NACRA 17 (/29 teams)
22. *Galen Richardson (Toronto, ON) & Madeline Gillis (Halifax, N.S.)
Formula Kite (W) (/22 sailors)
21. *Emily Bugeja (Vancouver, B.C.)
*Members of Sail Canada’s National Team
About Sail Canada
Established in 1931, Sail Canada is the national governing body for the sport of sailing in the country. Sail Canada is a leading international sailing nation, proud of its world class athletes, lifelong participants and inclusive culture. The organization and its members are committed to excellence by developing and training its leaders, athletes, sailors, instructors, coaches and officials. With the valued support from our partners, the Provincial Sailing Associations and our member clubs, schools, organizations and stakeholders, sailing is promoted in all its forms. By setting standards and delivering programs from home pond to podium for Canadians of all ages and abilities, from dinghies to keelboats, cruising to navigation, windsurfing to powerboating and accessible sailing, Sail Canada sets sail for all, sail to win and sail for life.
A sport in the Olympic program since the first Games in 1896, except in 1904, the pursuit of success in these Games is what fuels the focus of Sail Canada as Canadian athletes have so far achieved nine Olympic and five Paralympic medals.
