SailGP's Anna Weis on breaking boundaries: ‘Women in all sports are subject to more criticism'

New York Times

6 days ago

The weight of making history is often heavy. The attention is always more focused on those creating the path for others to follow.
As the first and only woman to take on the highly physical role of grinder in SailGP, Anna Weis feels pressure not just to succeed but also to propel women's professional sailing. 'Overwhelming,' a 'huge responsibility' and an 'extra burden' are the words she uses to describe her position as a female groundbreaker in her sport.
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'Women in all sports are subject to more criticism. We've seen it not only in sailing, but especially in SailGP with it being so male-dominated,' the 27-year-old American tells The Athletic.
Each SailGP team has to have at least one female as part of the six-person crew. Of the 12 teams competing in the fifth season, 10 of those have allocated their female team member to the role of strategist at the back of the boat. Weis and Brazil's Martine Grael are the exceptions, both being the only women in the sport's short history to compete in their positions of grinder and driver respectively.
'The women are looked at more closely just because there's only one of us (on each SailGP team),' she adds. 'I look at Martine (Grael) who's driving the Brazilian boat, and for me stepping into the grinding role, it can seem pretty overwhelming just because you're doing something that no woman has done before.
'We are breaking boundaries. And I think it comes with huge responsibility to prove that we can do those roles. It just adds a little bit of an extra burden that women have to deal with.'
The strategist is a position that requires speed and clarity of decision-making as they plot a weaving a path through the high-speed traffic for the driver steering the F50 foiling catamaran. But it's also a role that requires minimal physical strength, certainly by comparison with the job of the grinder, which is almost entirely about converting muscle power into hydraulic power by turning the handles of the grinding pedestal.
Mike Buckley, co-owner of the U.S. SailGP team, had given himself the strategist's role, so he approached Weis to see if she'd be interested in taking on the challenge of muscling up for the grinder's spot.
'One of my biggest strengths as a sailor has always been my fitness and strength and power,' said Weis, who rowed to a high level in college before setting out on an Olympic sailing campaign, culminating in her teaming up with helmsman Riley Gibbs in the fast and furious Nacra 17 foiling catamaran.
They won the U.S. ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Games and finished ninth overall. For the next few years, she hopped onto another foiling craft, this time the iQFOiL windsurfer, although she missed out on the U.S. spot for Paris 2024.
With Weis's strong background in hydrofoiling and her thirst for physical challenge, Buckley believed her to be the ideal candidate, even if she'd never actually been a grinder on any boat before.
'When Mike called and asked me if I was even interested in grinding, it sounded really intriguing to me because I've always loved that aspect — the fitness side of sailing and of sports generally, and I felt like it was right up my alley. From my background as a rower at college, I already had that mindset of just doing crazy psycho fitness things,' she laughs.
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The rowing background has been as important to her success in SailGP as her sailing credentials, Weis says.
'I was a D1 rower, basically the top division of rowing competing around the country. We were a varsity rowing team, and it was a full-on schedule. Wake up at 5.30am, get to the boathouse by 6.15am, ready to warm up. We did that six days a week with practice sessions in the afternoon too, and there was a team element to it which has been really helpful for integrating into the team at SailGP.'
While the speeds of the F50 in SailGP — over 60mph (100 kilometers an hour) — are the highest in competitive sailing, Weis says her grounding in the smaller Olympic foiling classes has prepared her well.
'Some of the scariest days I've had have been on my iQFOiL or the Nacra, because they're so much looser, kind of skittish. Getting comfortable with sailing at high speeds on any kind of foiling boat or board is always going to help when you get back on the F50.'
Weis has committed herself fully to adapting to the role. The Fort Lauderdale native has piled muscle onto her 5ft 9in frame and weighs 11.81 stone (75kg). But no matter how much muscle and fitness she brings to her game, Weis knows she is up against male grinders who weigh 14 to 16 stone.
The perception is that Weis will never be able to match the men for pure power in the stronger winds. On the other hand, in lighter winds when the crew of all the teams is reduced from six to as few as four, the U.S. team is perceived to have a power advantage because Weis is now in a grind-off against the smaller female strategists who have had to go forward in the cockpit to help add their limited muscle to the grinding pedestal.
Weis concedes there might be some truth to that analysis, but counters: 'Something that we've learned is that, even in the bigger breeze, maybe the other boats have more power, but for us it doesn't seem like the low-hanging fruit, and I think that we're not lacking power. For the light winds, every team has its own playbook about sharing out the jobs between fewer people, but I think my position (as grinder) is a strength because I have experience trimming the jib (the small sail at the front).'
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In a recent interview with The Athletic, Taylor Canfield, the U.S. team's driver and de facto leader, described Weis as an 'incredible sailor.'
'She is one of the stronger people in the league, and by far the strongest female athlete in the league,' he said, before explaining that of the all-American team's difficulties this season, power was not one. 'The input we're getting back from on board tells us it's not a problem,' he said.
As Weis and her teammates head into the New York leg this weekend, they're highly motivated to make up for the U.S. boat's underperformance at the previous two events in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
New York is the final opportunity of the season to show the home fans what they can do before the SailGP bandwagon moves across the Atlantic for a summer of European events.
Currently down in 11th place on the leaderboard, home fans expect better of their sailors in a sport where the USA has traditionally been strong. Critics have been clamoring for a change in personnel and the U.S. team will feel the scrutiny more keenly than ever under the imposing backdrop of New York's skyline.
'We've been working really hard behind the scenes on understanding what went wrong in San Francisco and the last few events and what we can improve on,' says Weis. 'Fortunately, we've got some training days in New York City and we're looking forward to going at it as hard as we can, right away.'
Weis knows the best she can do this weekend is to shut out the noise and focus on doing her job.
'I take pride in my strength and power as a woman, and I want to own that. I want to show that women can perform in these more male-dominated roles.
'In SailGP, I think we're starting to prove that we can be in those roles. Hopefully, we're looking at a future where there's more opportunity for women to step into more critical roles on the F50 and in sailing generally.'