TIME MACHINE: 1999

Welcome back to Time Machine! Today, we travel back to 1999.

More than just another year, 1999 was a threshold; the gateway between two eras. As the world anticipated a new millennium, artists, filmmakers, and musicians found powerful ways to express the hopes and anxieties of the time. In cinema, Lana and Lilly Wachowski dominated the box office with The Matrix, the first installment of a groundbreaking tetralogy that brought cyberpunk culture into the mainstream. That same summer, Eyes Wide Shut became Stanley Kubrick’s final artistic statement, and the last film to feature Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as an on-screen couple. Meanwhile, the global music scene was electrified by a young Britney Spears, who had just launched a pop career unlike any other.

But in February 1999, off the coast of Italy, all eyes turned to Giovanni Soldini.
The Milanese navigator had already made a name for himself in solo and crewed regattas, as well as in pioneering sailing technology. But this occasion marked something more. As writer Vincenzo Latronico described it, this was one of those “rare moments in the history of sport that transcend the discipline and become fixed in the collective memory as something epic—significant even for non-enthusiasts, just as the Apollo 11 moon landing is meaningful even to non-astrophysicists.”

Soldini was competing in the Around Alone race—a solo, round-the-world sailing challenge divided into four stages, beginning in Auckland, New Zealand, and ending in Punta del Este, Uruguay. His vessel was FILA, the first Italian-built 60-foot yacht featuring both a canting keel and a wing mast.

During the third leg of the race, where the warmth of the Pacific clashes with the icy Antarctic currents, Soldini received an urgent telex from the race organizers. French sailor Isabelle Autissier’s boat had capsized, and she was in serious danger. Without hesitation, Soldini changed course. With the help of meteorologist Pierre Lasnier, he plotted a search zone: a daunting 20 km by 20 km area.
“Like finding a needle in a haystack,” he later said. “I could have sailed right past and never seen her. We needed a stroke of luck.”

And luck, paired with incredible skill and determination, was on their side. Soldini spotted the overturned hull. His relief, captured in a video he filmed himself, was summed up in a single emotional outburst: “I’ve found her! I’ve found her!”

The next day, Autissier reflected on her rescue with heartfelt clarity:
“I don’t believe in luck or bad luck. We were simply doing a difficult job in an area prone to shipwrecks. Anyway, I never lost hope—partly because I’m an optimist, and partly because I knew that if anyone could find me, it was him.”

Following the rescue, Soldini went on to win the 1998–99 Around Alone race. On 29 February 2000, he was awarded the Légion d’honneur, personally presented by then French President Jacques Chirac. His heroism became a cultural milestone, not only for sailing, but for sports history as a whole. And it is impossible to forget the bright yellow FILA jumpsuit he wore throughout: a symbol of courage that still inspires those who dream of conquering the seas.

Also in 1999, Alessandra Chillemi, Italian breakdancer and FILA Museum Foundation ambassador, was born.