Burnet hails ‘huge step forward’ in female representation

Olympic medallist. Record-breaker. History-maker.

At just 31, Anna Burnet has already achieved more than many in a lifetime. 

But this summer the Shandon sailor aims to make history once again when she steps out as part of the British team campaigning to win the first ever Women’s America’s Cup. Before that, though, is the not insignificant feat of trying to upgrade an Olympic silver into gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, alongside John Gimson in the Nacra 17 mixed multihull. 

It will also be an Olympics which marks a milestone in the evolution and prominence of women’s sport – the first Games to see a 50:50 split of male and female athletes, both in sailing and the event as a whole. 

It’s a milestone Burnet has welcomed as ‘a huge step forward’.

First GB mixed multihull medal

Burnet’s chosen Olympic class, the Nacra 17, became the first ever compulsorily mixed class to feature in Olympic sailing when it debuted at Rio 2016.  

She switched to the foiling mixed multihull following its first Games outing in Brazil, having previously campaigned in the women’s 470 – where she won silver and bronze medals at the 2012 and 2013 Junior World Championships – and latterly the 49erFX.

She saw the introduction of a mixed class as a positive development, fostering not only an inclusive environment in the sport, but with the combination of male and female perspectives also contributing to more versatile and adaptable team dynamics in the boat. 

It was a move which saw rapid results, with Burnet and Gimson winning bronze at the Sailing World Cup Final in 2016 – their first event as a new crew – and subsequently becoming a regular feature on the podium. 

A first Nacra 17 World Championship title followed for the pair at the beginning of the would-be Olympic year in 2020, before the pandemic saw the Tokyo Games postponed by 12 months.

Rather than dampening the fire, the delay only served as fuel to their medal-winning ambitions. Burnet and Gimson sealed Olympic silver on the waters of Enoshima in 2021 – Team GB’s first in the mixed multihull class – and went on to pick up a second consecutive world title just two months later.

Role models not on only on the Olympic circuit, the pair also used their platform as elite athletes to champion bigger picture causes. They broke the world record for sailing from Belfast Ballyholme to Port Patrick, in doing so raising awareness of the climate crisis and highlighting the need for decarbonisation in maritime travel.

Championing female role models

Burnet and Gimson will once again represent the nation at Paris 2024. This will be the first Games to see equal representation of female and male athletes – a far cry from the two percent of females present when Paris last hosted the Games 100 years ago, and a step up from the 48% in Tokyo.

“The 50:50 target in terms of participation of the athletes is great and where it needs to be, and I think that’s a great step,” Burnet remarked in a recent interview with i, while adding that there was still room to grow.

“Probably the next step for the Olympics would be to increase the amount of female coaches and officials, that side of things, to have more quality in the wider Olympic field of play.

“I think it’s definitely something that would help to increase participation at a young age, having female role models and female coaches, which is something I did have in sailing when I was little, is really encouraging – you look at those people and you think it’s pretty cool that they’ve got to where they are in the sport.”

Building parity in pro sailing

The in-roads that have been made towards gender parity on the Olympic circuit in recent years are now also being seen in other areas of sailing, with the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup this summer being one such example of progress in what’s been an otherwise male-dominated space through the 173-year history of the Cup.

Burnet is one of seven British female sailors named in the Athena Pathway squad striving to bring home the Cup – all of whom cut their teeth in the RYA’s junior and youth sailing pathway and progressed into Olympic campaigning with the British Sailing Team. Hannah Mills OBE, the world’s most successful female Olympic sailor, is the team’s Principal.

As well as Burnet there are three other British sailors managing dual Olympic and Women’s AC campaigns this summer – a route never before open to female sailors – with 49erFX duo Freya Black and Saskia Tidey, and Formula Kite athlete Ellie Aldridge also part of the Athena programme.

“Life beyond Olympic sailing, when you step into the professional world, has been hugely male dominated and then finally the last couple of years it’s finally starting to change and become more accessible for female athletes to progress to that professional level,” Burnet explained.

“When I was little, I really admired any successful female sailors so I hope for young girls getting into the sport they can see a future in professional sailing that maybe wasn’t as visible before.”