'Pregnancy as an athlete is hard, you lose your identity'
Emily Wong On January 1, Hannah Mills decided to start the year as she meant to go on: she got back on the water. Gliding along the Cornish coast for the first time in nearly a year, she admits she was overcome with emotion. She was not being rocked around on an F50 foiling catamaran at close to 60mph just yet – instead sailing a wind foil – but it was a moment when she felt capable of doing what she does best again.
Mills is the most decorated female sailor in Olympic history, but during pregnancy she admits to feeling like she lost that strong sense of identity. “Pregnancy as an athlete is hard,” Mills says, speaking three months on from her daughter’s birth. “You definitely lose your identity. Mentally, you have to completely reset your expectations. Suddenly, everything you’re doing is about trying to prepare your body to give this little thing you’ve never met everything you can. So it’s challenging.”
As two-time Olympic champion Mills speaks, her daughter, Sienna, can be heard gurgling in the background, laid out on her baby-gym mat and reaching out to touch the toys dangling above her.
Mills, 34, and fiance Nick Dempsey, the three-time Olympic windsurfing medallist, are in the midst of packing for Singapore, preparing for her return to SailGP – and Sienna’s first flight. Returning to the water with the Great Britain Sailing team is a moment Mills has been waiting for since she last raced, in October 2021. She is the first mother to return in SailGP’s three-season history and helped Great Britain to fifth place in Singapore.
Mills has made a quick return to action, just three months after childbirth and a challenging pregnancy. Her first trimester was spent experiencing extreme fatigue, barely able to get off the sofa, while for the final stretch the pressure on her hips made even walking hard. “It was not always the easiest, but the end result is obviously unbelievable,” she says.
Then, when Mills got back to the gym, she was shocked by how much ability she had lost – in particular, her core strength.
Throughout the entire experience, she has been struck by how few resources are available to elite athletes returning to sport. Though she is a strategist for Great Britain's SailGP team, where she features alongside Ben Ainslie, travelling at high speed during races requires a level of fitness that Mills had to work hard to reclaim.
'It's always helpful to have those people you can chat to'
She teamed up with the British team doctor and the physiotherapist she worked with at the Olympics to put together a maternity workout programme, and leant on the advice of fellow Olympic champion mothers. British cyclists Elinor Barker and Laura Kenny were on hand over WhatsApp for all her questions, as well as Dutch sailor Marit Bouwmeester, who is also a new mother.
“It is super helpful to have those people who you can chat to. They’ve just done it and are on their road back to being elite athletes,” Mills says. “It’s been amazing to follow their journey coming back into a competitive sport and how they’ve juggled it. It’s just that shared experience and someone else who’s going through what you’re going through and trying to get back to doing what you want to get back to doing.”
When Mills signed up for SailGP, which is marketed as the Formula One of sailing, she did not expect to be taking such an extended hiatus from the water. Though there was no maternity package for her to follow, the Great Britain team helped Mills remain in the environment, by leading on its sustainability programmes and youth pathway, in particular recruiting young female sailors.
“As an athlete, once you take away being on the boat you’re suddenly not needed. So, to feel that I still was needed was really important – it was amazing,” she says. “Coming back, to be honest I don’t know how it will all work yet, but definitely with SailGP and the British team we can document my journey to make it easier for the next person.”
'I was scared of pregnancy as an athlete'
The logistics of travelling the world with an infant pose the most daunting prospect, starting with the long-haul flights, as well as figuring out how to balance breastfeeding and high-speed racing with the Great Britain team – two things she never thought she would have to juggle. Great Britain sent out back-up strategist Hannah Diamond to Singapore, to support Mills’s transition on the water, and Dempsey was on hand to look after their daughter.
But she is keen to help make motherhood conducive for everyone, and has already been in discussions with SailGP about the potential benefits of introducing creche facilities at race weekends.
Mills admits she “feared” the idea of a pregnancy derailing her career, but now hopes her experience will empower other women in SailGP to feel they can do the same. “I was definitely scared of it as an athlete – it felt like if I got pregnant, that would be the end of my athletic career. That’s probably why I waited so long, there is that fear. It’s a big deal, it’s a lot of time out and to get back to the level you need to be at – but it doesn’t mean you can’t.
“Hopefully I can help set things in place to make it easier for the next people who go on this journey with SailGP. If I can do that, that’s amazing.”
The SailGP Great Britain Team have today announced a three-year partnership with Low Carbon, a global renewable energy company. It will help the team become the most sustainable elite sporting squad in the world.
