SAILING HANNAH

Not long ago, I wrote here about the need for help – a reminder that this fight to reinstate sailing into the Paralympic Games is not something I, or World Sailing, can achieve alone. Since then, the reality has only become sharper: the timelines are shorter, the workload heavier, and the stakes higher.

People often say you have to be passionate about what you do, because without that fire, the challenges will eventually break you. My job at World Sailing has proven that true time and again. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever done — tougher in many ways than competing on the Paralympic stage itself. The weight of expectations, the endless deadlines, the constant negotiation for resources, the frustration of trying to move mountains when the system is built for slow progress — it’s exhausting. Some days, it feels like I’m drowning in work.

And yet, I keep going. I keep going because I used to be a Paralympic sailor. I know what it feels like to race at the Paralympics, to stand on the world’s biggest stage, and to carry the privilege of representing my country. That experience gave me freedom, identity, and purpose. I fight now so that others — young sailors from every corner of the world, many of them still waiting for their chance — can have that same opportunity.

But here’s the truth: passion alone isn’t enough anymore. We are at a critical moment. The IPC’s timeline for Brisbane 2032 is unforgiving. We have so much to prove and not enough time or resource to do it. If we are serious about getting sailing back into the Paralympics, then this cannot fall on one person, one team, or one office. It has to be the responsibility of the whole sport.

That means leadership — from the America’s Cup to SailGP, from the World Sailing Board to every single Member National Authority — stepping up. It means recognising that this fight is not peripheral or “nice to have,” but central to the future of sailing as a global, inclusive sport. We cannot continue to sit back, celebrate the glossy end of the sport, and hope that inclusion will somehow take care of itself.

It won’t.

But here’s the challenge: events like this don’t run on passion alone. They need support — financial, logistical, operational and moral. They need nations to send their sailors. They need classes to back their athletes. They need sponsors and leaders to stand up and say: this matters. Right now, I’m still waiting to see that support come at the scale we need.

I’ll be blunt: if we fail, it won’t be because I didn’t try, or because the sailors weren’t ready. It will be because sailing’s leadership — from the top events to the national authorities — chose not to act with the urgency this moment demands. That is what’s at stake.

Sailing gave me everything. It gave me a career, a purpose, a community, and memories I’ll never forget. I owe it to the sport, and to the sailors who are still waiting for their chance, to keep pushing. But I cannot carry this alone, and I shouldn’t have to.

So here it is: the clock is ticking. The Inclusion Championships are coming. The IPC deadline looms. If sailing wants to be back in the Paralympics, then every corner of our sport needs to pull its weight — NOW, not later. Because if we miss this chance, we won’t just lose a place at Brisbane 2032. We will have failed an entire generation of sailors.

And history will not forgive us for that.

If you care about sailing’s future, don’t clap from the shore – get in the boat.

Email me with what you can do – coaching hours, equipment, funding, logistics, document presentation, media, classification support, venue access. Fill my inbox with solutions.

Show up to the next PWSC meeting. Ask hard questions. Volunteer for real tasks.

Email your MNA today. Ask why your country isn’t represented in Para sailing, why they are not registered for the Inclusion Championships. Ask what they’re doing this month to change that.

Commit to sending sailors to the Inclusion Championships. If cost is the issue, help me find sponsors. If logistics are the issue, help move boats and people.

If you run a class, club, or series, add an inclusive division. If you run a pro league or major event, back this publicly and put resource behind it.

Share this post. Call your contacts. Open doors. Then follow through.

The clock is ticking. Inbox open.

Let’s get this done.