Hannah Louise Mills (born 29 February 1988) is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the

470 __NOTOC__ Year 470 ( CDLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Iordanes (or, less frequently, year 1223 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

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. ...

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 w ...

in the

2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were 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 The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

in Rio de Janeiro and, partnered by

Eilidh McIntyre Eilidh Jane McIntyre (born 4 June 1994) is a British former 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 C ...

, the

2020 Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

in Tokyo. Mills is currently the on-board strategist for the ''Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team'' competing in the

SailGP The Rolex SailGP Championship is an international sailing (sport), sailing competition that features high-performance F50 (catamaran), F50 Sailing hydrofoil, foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix (GP) a ...

worldwide competition. In 2022, Mills and

Ben Ainslie Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie (born 5 February 1977) is a British sailing (sport), competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at four ...

launched Athena Pathway, a programme to help fast-track development for female and youth sailors. The Athena Pathway team competed in the first ever Women's America's Cup, helmed by Mills.

Early life

Mills was born in

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

, Wales, and started sailing at

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

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

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

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

Optimist Optimism is the attitude or mindset of expecting events to lead to particularly positive, favorable, desirable, and hopeful outcomes. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass filled with water to the halfway poin ...

Squad and winning the British Optimist Championships in 2001. She represented GBR at the 2002 and 2003

Optimist World Championship The Optimist World Championship is an annual World Championship sailing regatta in the Optimist (dinghy), Optimist class organised by the International Optimist Dinghy Association. One of, if not the largest Boat racing, regatta of the optimist cl ...

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 Howell's School () is a private day school for girls in Llandaff, a district in northern Cardiff, Wales. It consists of a nursery, infants, junior, senior school and a sixth form. The sixth form became coeducational in September 2005 and was re ...

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. It was held at the National Sailing Accedemy between the 31 July and 13 August 2011. Venue The r ...

, 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 club on behalf of the International 470 Class Association and recognized by World Sailing. When the Championship forms part of the ISAF Sailing World Championshi ...

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

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

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 represents the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but also incorporate represen ...

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 4 August 2021, Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre won a gold medal in the women's 470 at the Tokyo Olympics. On 2 December 2021, Hannah won the World Sailor of the Year Awards alongside McIntyre.

Athena Pathway

In 2022, Mills and Ben Ainslie launched Athena Pathway, a programme to help fast-track development for female and youth sailors. Athena Pathway has a team competing in the first-ever Women's America's Cup, skippered by Mills also including Tasha Bryant,

, Hannah Diamond, Anna Burnet,

Ellie Aldridge Eleanor Aldridge MBE (born 29 December 1996) is a British sailor from Dorset who competes in women's kite foiling. She won the 2023 Formula Kite European Championships and took the silver that year in the World Championships. At the 2024 Pari ...

and Hattie Rogers. The team made it through the heats and their boat

Athena Pathway Athena Pathway is a British sailing team created in 2022 to compete for the 2024 2024 Unicredit Youth America's Cup, Youth and 2024 PUIG Women's America's Cup, Women's editions of the America's Cup. The team was established in 2022 with the am ...

was beaten in the finals in October 2024 by the Italians. Athena Pathway also put together a British Youth Team to defend their title from the inaugural event in Bermuda in 2017. Athena Pathway entered a team into both the 2nd Unicredit Youth America's Cup and the inaugural Puig Women's America's Cup. The women's team was skippered by Mills and enrolled

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. Milles was awarded an Honorary Master of Science degree in 2013 and an Honorary Doctorate in 2017 from the

University of Chichester The University of Chichester is a public university located in West Sussex, England, which became a university in 2005. Campuses are based in the city of Chichester and the nearby coastal resort of Bognor Regis and an associate campus for comm ...

. 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two 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 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(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 celebratio ...

for services to sailing and the environment.

Personal life

Mills is married to windsurfer

Nick Dempsey Nicholas Charles Dempsey (born 13 August 1980 in Norwich) is a retired British windsurfer, who lives in Poole, Dorset. He became the first man to win three Olympics medals in windsurfing when he won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, adding to a ...

with whom she has a daughter.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Hannah 1988 births Living people Welsh female sailors (sport) Sportspeople from Cardiff Olympic sailors for Great Britain Olympic medalists in sailing Welsh Olympic competitors 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 Great Britain SailGP Team sailors ISAF World Sailor of the Year (female) Officers of the Order of the British Empire