With less than a week to go before Sunday’s start, the 2024 Vendée Globe is already breaking all records! With a record 40 skippers at the start, a record 11 nationalities represented and 360,000 visitors enjoying the Race Village experience during the first week – a number which is up 20% compared to 2016 – the event is exceeding all expectations. And the number of people watching the race, on TV or on the web, is also increasing significantly. More than ever, the Vendée Globe is establishing itself as an unmissable global sporting event.

Over the first week, the Vendée Globe village has recorded exceptional attendances, welcoming more than 360,000 visitors which is an increase of more than 20% compared to the 2016 figures, the 2020 edition having been disrupted by Covid-19.

Alain Leboeuf, president of the Vendée Globe and the Vendée Department said: “After eight years of waiting, the public’s enthusiasm for the race is obvious, and we have had to increase our resources to meet this massive influx.”

In 2016, the village attracted a total of 1.15 million visitors over the entire start period; the figures for this first week suggest a new record. And TV coverage for the Start is set to reach almost 50% more broadcasters. The broadcast of the live start of the Vendée Globe 2024 is seeing a significant increase, with 60 broadcasters planned to transmit the live TV signal, compared to 41 during the previous edition, an increase of 46%. Among them, 19 French broadcasters (13 in 2020) and 41 international broadcasters (28 in 2020), proof that the event is becoming ever more international.

Web traffic is on the rise too. Since the village opened, there has been a 24% increase in the number of visits to the vendeeglobe.org website compared to the same period in 2020.

And already on the official Virtual Regatta game, there are now nearly 20% more people registered than at this date in 2020.

These numbers illustrate the growing interest in the Vendée Globe and underlines its status as a major sporting event, making this emblematic event accessible to an ever wider and more diverse audience.

Forty skippers will be at the start of this 10th edition of the Vendée Globe, a record entry that underlines the huge enthusiasm for the race. The broad, international diversity of the skippers brings a unique richness to the race and beyond the size of the entry itself, the sporting level is particularly  high with sailors and boats better prepared and more competitive than ever before!

This new record 11 nationalities represented – compared to nine in 2020 – shows the 2024 Vendée Globe reaches a new level of internationalisation, attracting skippers from all four corners of the globe. The 14 international skippers, more than a third of the fleet, symbolise a growing openness. This diversity firmly anchors the Vendée Globe as a human adventure on a truly global scale.

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