Last year – along with several other aspiring women sailors Mills – tried out with Ben Ainslie’s British outfit through SailGP’s diversity programme ‘Inspire’ to become part of the circuit’s newly formed women’s performance pathway programme.
“I had watched Season 1 and just loved what I saw and I knew it was a huge opportunity,” Mills says.
“There are not many opportunities for women beyond Olympic sailing to carry on in our sport so it felt like a massive chance that I wanted to grab.”
Unsurprisingly, given her pedigree and track record of Olympic success in the women’s 470 dinghy – a silver and two gold medals at the last three Olympics, as two world championship titles in the class – she made the grade.
