Hannah Louise Mills (born 29 February 1988) is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olympics, she followed this up with a gold in the same event at both the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and, partnered by Eilidh McIntyre, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Mills is currently[when?] the on-board strategist for the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team competing in the SailGP worldwide competition. In 2022, Mills and Ben Ainslie 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, Wales, and started sailing at Cardiff Sailing Centre (then Llanishen Sailing Centre) when she was 8 years old[1][2][3] after trying sailing on a family holiday in Cornwall.[4] Mills then started moving up to sail for the Welsh National Optimist Squad and winning the British Optimist Championships in 2001.[2] 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.[citation needed]
Mills attended Howell's School, Llandaff 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.[citation needed]
On 10 August 2012, Mills helming for Clark won a silver medal at the Olympic games in Weymouth.[1] Mills battled hard throughout the event, not finishing outside the top six the entire regatta. They went into the medal race 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 ninth in the medal race, which gave them the silver medal.[7]
Mills and Clark continued towards the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On 10 December 2014, they were robbed at knifepoint in Rio de Janeiro while in training for the event.[8]
She was selected as one of the British flag bearers at the 2020 Olympics in Japan, which took place in July 2021. On 4 August 2021, Mills and Eilidh McIntyre won a gold medal in the women's 470 event.[11] On 2 December 2021, Mills won the World Sailor of the Year Awards alongside McIntyre.[citation needed]
SailGP and Athena Pathway
Mills joined the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team in 2021, starting in the Cádiz event of the 2021–22 SailGP season.[12]
In 2022, Mills and Ben Ainslie launched Athena Pathway, a programme to help fast-track development for female and youth sailors.[13] Athena Pathway has a team competing in the first-ever Women's America's Cup, skippered by Mills also including Tasha Bryant, Saskia Clark, Hannah Diamond, Anna Burnet, Ellie Aldridge and Hattie Rogers.[14] The team made it through the heats and their boat Athena Pathway was beaten in the finals in October 2024 by the Italian team.[15]
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.
Awards and honours
In 2002, Mills was voted UK Young Sailor of the Year and BBC Wales Young Sports Personality of the Year.[16] Mills won the Female World Sailor of the Year award in 2016.[17]
Milles was awarded an Honorary Master of Science degree in 2013 and an Honorary Doctorate in 2017 from the University of Chichester.[18]
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