Spain has hosted the World Cup on five occasions: Arenys de Mar, Roses, Ciutadella, La Coruña and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The Optimist World Championship will return to Spain in 2023. The Club de Vela La Ballena Alegre, located in the heart of the Costa Brava in Girona, has far surpassed the other four candidates in the election that took place on Wednesday July 7 in Riva del Garda, where this year's World Cup is being held. The proposed dates for the 2023 world event in Spain are 10-21 June.

In 2023 it will be 20 years of the last World Optimist held in Spain. The last two were in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and La Coruña in the years 2003 and 2000 respectively. This will be the sixth time in our country, previously Arenys de Mar, Roses and Ciutadella were hosted.

For the election of the 2023 World Cup, the various national delegations voted, and in the end the Gerundense club and Oman's candidacy have arrived. The vote was wide in favour of the CV La Ballena Alegre, which was imposed with 36 votes against the 17 in Oman. In the first round, Slovenia's candidacy fell and in the second St. Petersburg, Russia, it was the one that was left out of the final vote.

The sports director of the CV La Ballena Alegre, Pep Subirats, in charge of presenting and defending the candidacy, was very happy for the result: We knew it was difficult, as the other candidates had a lot of entity, but from the very beginning delegations were very receptive to our project..

Subirats has explained that in 2023 will be celebrated the 50th anniversary of international recognition of the Optimist class and Spain has always played a very important role in its history; I think this has also been taken very seriously.

The representative of the Catalan club wants to thank you especially... the president of AECIO, Kiko Sánchez; the Team Leader of Spain, Kiko Echo; the Real Federación Española de Vela, la Catalana, the Club Nàutic L'Cscale, the Consell Català de l'Esport and many high-level regatists, who through social networks have shown their unconditional support from the very first moment so that this has finally become a reality.

The recent European Championship of the Optimist class organized by the RCN El Puerto de Santa María (Cadiz), where the representative of the CV La Ballena Alegre presented the Spanish candidacy to the various delegations, has also been a perfect window for the 2023 World Cup to end up highlighting in Spain.