Athlete Olympic Class ILCA 7
Cesare Barabino
Cesare Barabino, born in 2002 in Olbia, Sardinia, is a leading Italian athlete in the ILCA 7 Olympic class, previously known as the Laser, the largest class in the world. He joined the Young Azzurra programme in 2022.
Having taken to the Optimist at just 7 years of age, Cesare came to prominence winning the Coppa Primavela in 2011 and the Coppa Cadetti the following year. From 2013 to 2015, the year in which he claimed the third step on the podium in the European Championship, he was part of the National Competitive Group in the Optimist before moving on to the Laser 4.7 class in 2016, where he concluded his first season in 4th place overall and first in the Under-16 category in the European Ranking. In 2017 he came top among the Under-16s at the Europeans and the World Championships, where he took third place overall. In 2018 he became European champion and won the prestigious Kieler Woche in the Laser 4.7. He then moved to the Laser Radial in 2018, finishing the World Championships in 6th place overall and as the top Under-17 athlete. In 2020 he started racing on the ILCA 7, where he ranked first in the Under-21 category at the Italian Olympic Classes Championship, a result he repeated in 2021.
In 2022 Cesare placed second at the U21 ILCA 7 European Championship and in 2023 he came sixth in the CICO Italian Olympic Classes Championship. His first event of 2024 was the European Championship in Athens, where he came 25th in a field of 130 top-level competitors.