Lymington’s Hannah Snellgrove picks up two wins in Paris during Olympic debut

LYMINGTON sailor Hannah Snellgrove’s Olympic debut has come to an end after the 34-year-old narrowly missed out on the women’s dinghy final.

The former Ballard School pupil started slowly before winning races four and five, but as the final event ended, she was 12th – two places outside the medal race qualification.

The three-time national champion opened up with a 17th and 20th-place finish before crossing the line in sixth to set up Saturday’s back-to-back victories.

A subsequent 14th-place finish lifted the Lymington Town Sailing Club member to third overall.

Unfortunately, Snellgrove suffered a trio of unlucky results on the final two days of racing, slipping to 20th, 29th and 32nd place finishes to leave the sailor nine points away from a medal race spot.

The 34-year-old, who began her journey at Salterns Sailing Club in Lymington at age seven and trained often with Royal Lymington Yacht Club, spoke about her back-to-back firsts: “It felt like a bucket list ticking-off moment when you win a race at the Olympics. And then I did it again, which is really cool.”

Snellgrove earned the right to take on the world’s best sailors in Paris after finishing 10th at the 2024 World Championships.

The sailor has shown a tremendous fighting spirit throughout her career. After her funding was cut off in 2014 after being removed from the national program, Snellgrove took matters into her own hands by crowdfunding to buy a boat in an effort to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Then, after requiring surgery on her knee, a serious back injury cast doubt on her Paris dreams.

Snellgrove, who worked as a journalist with the New Milton Advertiser & Lymington Times to pay towards her new boat, is also a folk musician who regularly performs at festivals.