DANIELA MOROZ, RAVI PARENT SELECTED AS US SAILING’S 2022 ROLEX YACHTSWOMAN AND YACHTSMAN OF THE YEAR
On Thursday, February 2, 2023, as part of US Sailing’s Sailing Leadership Forum, the best U.S. sailor athletes of 2022 were honored among family, friends, peers, competitors, and contributors to the sport of sailing.
Ravi Parent (Sarasota, FL) and Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, CA) were awarded the 2022 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year award and were celebrated along with fellow 2022 award finalists Laura Grondin, Sara Stone, David Starck, and Doug DeVos.
The winners were presented with the Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year award trophy along with specially engraved Rolex Yacht-Master timepieces. These honorees join an elite group of notable national sailors.
In 2022, Daniela Moroz won gold at the Princesa Sofia Olympic regatta and captured her 6th consecutive Kite Foil World Championship title. Moroz also placed first at the French Olympic Week Regatta, held at the 2024 Olympic venue.
“I turn 22 today, and I keep thinking how unreal my day has been,” said Moroz after winning her award. “I went out on the water, got to race, spend the evening with my parents, and now this. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
Raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Moroz competed in her first international event at age 14, winning her first World Championship only a year later, at 15. Since then, she has won six world championships and four European championships. Moroz is currently campaigning for the 2024 Olympic games, where the Formula Kite will make its Olympic debut.
This is the fourth time Moroz has won the award. Her first win, as a 16-year-old in 2016, made her the youngest ever to claim the prize. She was also the first kiteboarder to receive this award.
In 2022, Ravi Parent became the first sailor to win the A Class Worlds, F18 European Championships, and F18 World Championship in the same year. Adding to that success, Parent won the A Cat Midwinters Championship and the A Class division at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Series.
“To see the list of those that won before me is truly amazing,” said Parent. “As was said this evening, these awards are not given, they are earned, and thanks to my networks of sailors and those I’ve trained with, receiving this award is truly humbling.”
Parent was first introduced to multihull sailing growing up at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron, where at the age of 14 he joined the Sarasota Youth Multihull Team. From that first introduction to the F18, Parent went on to compete in two Youth World Championships, complete a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, and campaign for the Olympics in the Nacra 17.
In February, three men and three women were chosen as finalists for US Sailing’s 2022 Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards. The annual rundown of the year’s “best in the U.S.” represents a wide range of accomplished sailors from various disciplines and at different stages of their respective careers. Yachtsman and Yachtswoman finalists earned their spot on this exclusive list by dominating their respective classes and showing true variety in their sailing accomplishments. All six of these sailors represent their own unique pathway to the sport, having demonstrated on-the-water excellence at international and national events bringing global recognition to sailing in while representing the United States.
