Hannah Louise Mills, (born 29 February 1988) is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the Women's 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for

Team GB Team GB is the brand name used since 1999 by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for their British Olympic team. The brand was developed after the nation's poor performance in the 1996 Summer Olympics, and is now a trademark of the BOA. I ...

with her crew

Saskia Clark Saskia Clark, (born 23 August 1979 in Colchester, Essex) is a British sailor and Olympic Gold medalist. She competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics and she was selected, along with Hannah Mills, to sail in the 470 Women's class for Team GB. They ...

in the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, she followed this up with a gold in the same event at both the

2016 Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and, partnered by

Eilidh McIntyre Eilidh Jane McIntyre (born 4 June 1994) is a British sailor, who won the gold medal alongside Hannah Mills in the 470 event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She won the 2019 470 World Championships, and came second at the 2017 470 World Champio ...

, the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

Early life

Mills was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

, Wales, and started sailing at

Cardiff Sailing Centre Cardiff Sailing Centre ( cy, Canolfan Hwylio Caerdydd) is a Cardiff Council run watersports facility based on Cardiff Bay Barrage in Cardiff Bay. The centre runs dinghy & keelboat sailing, windsurfing, powerboat and other shore-based courses. ...

(then Llanishen Sailing Centre) when she was 8 years old after trying sailing on a family holiday in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

. Mills then started moving up to sail for the Welsh National

Optimist Optimism is an attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavor, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favorable, and desirable. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled ...

Squad and winning the British Optimist Championships in 2001. She represented GBR at the 2002 and 2003 Optimist_World_Championship finishing first girl and fifth over-all in 2003, the best ever result by a British sailor at that championship. Mills attended

Howell's School, Llandaff , image = Ysgol Howell, Llandaf 01.JPG , image_size = , caption = , coordinates = , motto = Nurturing Excellence , established = 1860 , closed = , type = Independent day school , r ...

in her teen years, with her now retired relative being a teacher there. She is part of the schools pay only alumnus programme, sometimes visiting the school to talk about her achievements.

Career

At the 2011 Skandia Sail for Gold regatta and the

2011 Weymouth & Portland International Regatta The Weymouth & Portland International Regatta 2011 was the sailing test event for the 2012 Summer Olympics and was part of the London Prepares series London Prepares series is the banner under which the test events for the 2012 Summer Olympic an ...

, Hannah won a silver medal in the 470 Women class. After suffering a black flag in the very first race of the championships, Hannah and her crew Saskia claimed gold at the 2012

470 World Championships The 470 World Championships have been held every year since 1970 and organised by the International 470 Class Association and recognized by the International Sailing Federation. When the Championship forms part of the ISAF Sailing World Championsh ...

in Barcelona. On 10 August 2012 Hannah Mills helming for Saskia Clark won a silver medal at the Olympic games in Weymouth. Mills battled hard throughout the event, not finishing outside the top 6 the entire regatta. She went into the medal race with crew Saskia Clark equal points with the New Zealand team and far enough ahead of the rest of the fleet that both boats were battling it out for Gold and Silver. After a great start, however, there was a dramatic wind shift and they came 9th in the medal race, which gave them the Silver medal. On 10 December 2014, Mills and Clark were robbed at knifepoint in

while in training for the 2016 Olympics. Mills and Clark won gold at the

in Rio de Janeiro. In October 2019, Mills was named as one among 12 sailors by

British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

for Tokyo 2020. Mills was selected as one of the GB flag bearers at the 2020 Olympics in Japan, which took place in July 2021. On 4th August 2021, Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre won a gold medal in the Women's 470 at the Tokyo Olympics. On 2nd December 2021, Hannah won the World Sailor of the Year Awards alongside McIntyre.

Awards and honours

In 2002, Mills was voted UK Young Sailor of the Year and BBC Wales Young Sports Personality of the Year. Mills won the Female World Sailor of the Year award in 2016. Mills was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to sailing and the environment.

References

External links

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RYA Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Hannah 1988 births Living people Welsh female sailors (sport) Sportspeople from Cardiff Olympic sailors of Great Britain Olympic medalists in sailing Welsh Olympic medallists Sailors at the 2012 Summer Olympics – 470 Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Extreme Sailing Series sailors 420 class world champions 470 class world champions Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – 470 Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – 470 Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain World champions in sailing for Great Britain ISAF World Sailor of the Year (female) Officers of the Order of the British Empire