Charlotte Consorti discovered kitesurfing in 1999 and specialized in speed, a discipline also called kitespeed. She was crowned world champion three times and broke several world speed records.
The most recent took place in 2010, in Namibia. Following an incredible performance, she took to the water at a speed of 50.43 knots, or 93 km/h.
At the microphone of Bixente Lizarazuthe champion looks back on this feat.
World’s fastest woman on the water under sail
It was in 2010, in Namibia, that Charlotte Consorti set her last world record. But advancing on water at 93 km/h is not without risk. She realized this after the misfortune that she lived through right after accomplishing this feat. “At the end of this record, I lost consciousness”she says. “I fell into the water and I was sure I had hit a rock. In fact, I just hit the water head-on. I had a helmet, but no protective grid”. She remembers that it was a competitor who pulled it out of the water. “He was super happy and told me that I had broken the record, but I had just regained consciousness and I couldn’t open my eyes. I had blood in my eye, I was too afraid that I had lost my eye”. With no one to help himit was a spectator of the event who took her to see a doctor in town. “I realized that I was at the end of the world, and that to set records, we don’t have the same assistance as in France”she explains.
“Going ever faster will always be my goal. -Charlotte Consorti
Today, Charlotte Consorti is still trying to break her own recordbut in vain : “I put it too high. I shouldn’t have, it’s too hard! ». To succeed in going as fast as possible, all conditions must be metbut this happens rarely and over a very short period of time. “Not only do you need a wind of 50 knots, but you need a specific wind angle. If the wind stays in one direction, it can vary by one or two degrees, and that will affect the record. Sometimes it will be 50 knots all day, but the record can only be broken for 10 minutes”. She then plans to try to break a new record in another sailing discipline : the wing.