BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — American Magic hopes that injured helmsman Paul Goodison will be back at some point in the America’s Cup, but he will not be starting the playoffs, teammate Tom Slingsby said Friday.
Goodison sustained an unspecified injury on Sept. 7 near the end of the opening round-robin phase. Six days later, Slingsby revealed that Goodison had been hurt when he “had a fall on the boat.”
The New York Yacht Club American Magic would not disclose the nature of Goodison’s injury or his exact condition when questioned by The Associated Press.
Slingsby said Goodison won’t be ready to sail when American Magic faces Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli on Saturday, and did not have a timeline for when his co-skipper might be back in action.
“Unfortunately, he won’t be with us tomorrow. We are still taking it day by day for when he will return,” Slingsby said at a news conference. “We all wish Goodie a quick recovery and we hope that we can still see him in this competition.”
Goodison was an Olympic gold medalist in 2008. This is his third America’s Cup overall and his second with American Magic.
In the meantime, substitute Lucas Calabrese will remain in Goodison’s place on port helm.
Slingsby said that Goodison was still under medical supervision, but that the team was hopeful he could be back. The team would not say whether Goodison was hospitalized.
“The doctors are with him each day and assessing him each day. He was weighed in for our team, so we are hopeful that he will be joining us again,” Slingsby said. “It’s a tough one where he really wants to be out there with us, but he is not able to at the moment. It’s just going to be assessing how quickly he can feel ready to come back on join us.”
The first-to-five-wins series against Luna Rossa runs this week, with INEOS Britannia facing Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the other playoff. That will be followed by the Louis Vuitton Cup finals starting on Sept. 26, whose winner will then face defending champion New Zealand in the America’s Cup finals starting on Oct. 12.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
