With winds blowing around 12 to 20 knots across Lake Silvaplana, Wylde was as surprised as anyone to discover she is proving seriously competitive. Out of a total eight races, the 26-year-old from Hood River, Oregon, took three wins, four seconds and a fourth. “The thing I was most pleased about was my consistency,” grinned Wylde modestly. “It was incredible to kind of keep on nailing the starts, but even when I didn’t I was really pleased to be able to make up the space. I didn’t crash once and I think I only touched down [on the water] twice during the whole day of racing.”

Wylde admits that moving into the lead for the first time was a bit intimidating. “All of a sudden I had to adjust because you have no reference point on how high to point, or if you're actually pointing high, or if you have a good speed. It was really challenging but I had to tell myself, ‘keep going, you're doing good, don’t look back, keep on doing what you’re doing’.”

The American had been making good progress with wingfoiling up until early 2022 when a big crash resulted in a big shoulder injury and subsequent surgery from which it took 18 months to recover. “It’s really good to be back, and today and yesterday have been such good days, even if I have a terrible rest of the regatta I’ll still be happy with this week.”

Wylde’s performance has lifted her well clear of the rest of the fleet, but the points are extremely tight between the next three female riders - Maddalena Spanu (ITA), Karolina Kluszczynska (POL) and Orane Ceris (FRA). 

“I don’t know what is the difference, but I seem to be able to go a bit higher than most people but with the same speed. Racing here is exhausting though. It’s not hard on the muscles, but being this high up in the mountains, it’s hard work on the heart.”

The statistics from Fiona Wylde’s smart watch confirm what a big aerobic day it had been for all the riders: “81.5km of distance sailed, max speed 27.26 knots, 4 hours 7 minutes of workout time, 2161 calories burned, 150bpm average heart rate, 201 max heart rate. I shouldn’t have run up that mountain two days ago,” she laughed. “I’m feeling it!”