Meet Virginie Hériot (1890–1932). At age 14, she accompanied her brother and a few friends on a cruise aboard the family yacht. Six years later, she married Viscount François Marie Haincque de Saint Senoch; the couple honeymooned on the yacht Salvador, a wedding present. From then on, she was definitively bitten by the sailing bug. In 1912, she had her first racing boat built (rich or poor, it pays to have money), and in 1928, she reached the pinnacle of her career by winning the gold medal in the 8-meter class during the Olympics in Amsterdam. During a regatta in Arcachon in 1932, she died of a massive heart attack at the very moment her yacht crossed the finish line. I was unaware of Virginie Heriot’s existence until I saw this statue of her in the harbor of Cannes today.