Annie Lush

Hobbies

Learning to play the piano, cycling, wakeboarding, outdoor sports, listening to music and spending time with friends. (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Occupation

Athlete

Education

Geography, Politics - Cambridge University, Cambridge, GBR

Club name

Parkstone Yacht Club, Great Britain

Coach

Mark Nichols, Simon Shaw, Ian Williams, Andy Beadsworth, Maurice Paardekooper (matchracegirls.com, rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Position and style

Middle (matchracegirls.com, 22 Feb 2012)

Sporting relatives

As well as sailing, she achieved 'Blue' status in two other sports while attending Cambridge University. She was a member of the successful Light Blues crew in the 2001 boat race and also part of the Cambridge team that defeated Oxford in the 2002 Varsity Rugby match. (sport.cam.ac.uk, 22 Sep 2011)

Injuries

In January 2011 at the Rolex Miami World Cup regatta she fell from the boat as it was being taken out of the water by crane. She hit her head on the metal bar of an empty trailer on the way down and required 36 stitches to close the wound. "I was nervous about falling asleep in case when I woke up it would not be the same," she said. "The moment I landed [on the concrete] I thought about missing the Olympics. I knew how far I had fallen and on to what. It was pretty scary." She spent one month out of the boat before returning. (dailymail.co.uk, 22 Sep 2011)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
She took up sailing at the age of seven and grew up racing an AB dinghy in Poole Harbour. (sperrytopsider.com, rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Reason for taking up this sport
Her dad and her friends got her into sailing. "I can't really imagine being somewhere without the sea. I love the sea for lot's of different reasons. Just living by it and just being able to see it everyday is really important to me." (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012; sperrytopsider.com, 22 Feb 2012)

Ambitions
To compete in the Americas Cup and/or the Volvo Ocean Race. (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Hero
The United States' multiple Tour de France champion cyclist Lance Armstrong and rowing gold medallist from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games Brad Alan Lewis. (yachtingworld.com, rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Most influential person in career
Her dad and her friends who got her into sailing, and her former crewmate, Great Britain's double Olympic champion sailor Shirley Robertson. (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Superstitions / Rituals
She doesn't like the colour green on the boat and doesn't even carry green tape on board. (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

Sporting philosophy / motto
"You have to really, really love your sport, but I think you need to maintain a healthy balance between sailing and your education when you are young. I think if you give up everything for sailing and training then you run the risk of getting fed up with the sailing." (rya.org.uk, 22 Feb 2012)

General
FAMILY FIRST AT LONDON 2012
Her crewmates, sisters Kate [helm] and Lucy [bow], will become the first British sailing sisters to compete together at the same Olympic Games, and in her position of middle she literally spends a lot of time in between them. "They get on great but of course there can be disagreements," she said. "It is always dangerous to get involved when sisters argue. You never know whether it is about a sailing matter or a toy someone once stole." (dailymail.co.uk, 22 Sep 2011)

FROM ROWING TO SAILING
Representing Emmanuel College, she won the 2001 boat race with Cambridge which gave her the ambition of competing in the Olympic Games. After she graduated she met Cathy Foster, a Great Britain sailing representative at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, who asked her to be part of her Yngling team. She believed she was too small for rowing and thought sailing would be more of an intellectual challenge, so with a sailing background and an Olympic desire she agreed. It was through this connection that she met Shirley Robertson, became her training partner in 2004 and in 2006 part of Robertson's Yngling team [alongside Lucy MacGregor] that unsuccessfully contested selection for Great Britain's 2008 Beijing Olympic Games team. (annielush.com, 03 Mar 2006; yachtingworld.com, 22 Feb 2012)

SAIL FAIL
Once during a practice race as a teenager at the 420 World Championships in Greece she was on her way to the start line when she realised her kite sail was tied on wrong and she was hoisting it upside down. "It looked so ridiculous," she said. "I was laughing so hard I couldn't drop it very quickly. I could just hear a lot of applause and giggles from our competitors!" (matchracegirls.com, 22 Feb 2012)