—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Anna started her sailing journey as a young girl growing up in the UK and not really enjoying the sport. After her move to the USA at the age of 12 she started to develop a love for the sport. It was at the age of 12 that she stated to her parents that one day she wanted to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
She attended Old Dominion University where her sailing really started to fall into place winning 4 national titles for the school and being named 3-time women’s All American, 1-time co-ed All American and Quantum College Sailor of the Year. After college she dove into Olympic sailing in the Laser Radial where she ended up winning the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympics. The next quad was focused on Match Racing where her and her team of Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi were ranked number one in the world, won the 2011 World Championships, and finished 5th at the 2012 Olympics. Anna has also won ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year in 2009 and 2011 and US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year every year from 2008-2011.
After the 2012 Olympics, Anna retired from Olympic sailing to focus on CrossFit, both competitively and with her gym, which she owns with her husband, Brad, and parents. She attended 6 CrossFit Games, 5 as an individual athlete with two top 10 overall finishes, and in 2018 as a Masters Athlete claiming the title of Fittest on Earth.
In early 2018, she teamed up with Paris Henken to see how the chemistry was and to see if the fit was right in the boat. Anna moved from her usual driving position to the front of the boat to crew. It all looked like it was going to work and they teamed up to commit to campaigning for Gold for the 2020 Olympics.
Want to see some incredible, inspirational workouts? Check out Anna's video channel or any of these other videos of her.
Anna is down to earth for anyone, let alone a gold medalist and Crossfit champion. Watch her videos to see the contrast with what she does, her abilities, and how she doesn't have to be humble. She does something hard, that most can't do, like a clean and jerk or climbing a rope, then does as many as she can in a cycle with other hard things, to past exhaustion. She shows us what people are capable of, mentally and physically. I hear from her that she wants people to develop for themselves what she does for herself, community being a big part of it. She talks about the value of coaching -- the intimacy and vulnerability in it. Number one means reaching your potential. If you're interested in reaching your potential, putting people like Anna in your peer group, not as abstract heroes, I think helps you reach your final goal. If the environment matters to you, your goal is likely far off with no guarantee we'll reach it. Anna shares how to survive such challenges and emerge a champion. As an aside, some guests inspire me, usually on the second conversation, when I hear their environmental activity. Anna inspired me before we spoke. Researching her, I saw that at the 2018 Crossfit games the athletes, not in her division, had to row a marathon on a rowing machine. They all looked happy to do it, so I decided to try it. Never having rowed more than 7,500 meters at once, I first rowed a half-marathon. Then a few weeks later rowed a full marathon. That's what happens when you put gold medalists in your world. Read the transcript.