Annie Lush
- Date of birth:
- 11 April 1980
- Star sign:
- Aries
- Place of birth:
- Poole, UK
- Current Hometown:
- Poole
London 2012 will be Annie Lush’s Olympic Games debut following the introduction of Women’s Match Racing as an Olympic discipline.
Lush and her 2012 skipper Lucy Macgregor campaigned for Beijing 2008 in the Yngling three-person keelboat class with double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson, but despite winning 2007 Worlds bronze, the trio were pipped for selection by Sarah Ayton’s eventual 2008 Olympic champion team.
With a proven record in international match racing, Lush fast established herself as one of the leading British crews in the new Elliott 6m women’s Olympic Classes match racing boat. In 2011, with Lucy and fellow crewmate Kate Macgregor, Annie won gold at the 2011 Hyeres World Cup event followed by silvers at the 2011 Skandia Sail for Gold World Cup Regatta and the 2011 Worlds in Perth.
Lush was part of Macgregor’s team that won the 2010 ISAF Women’s World Match Racing Championship, Lush's third World match racing crown.
Annie's Olympic Medals
| Olympic Year & Venue | Class | Medal |
| n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annie's Q&A Session
| First boat sailed and where? | I am sure it was when I was very small, but the first time I went sailing on my own was in an AB dinghy which only exists in Poole Harbour and there are about 100 of them there, and I grew up racing in one of those. |
| Favourite boat to sail? | Recently we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to sail on the back of the America’s Cup boats as part of the umpire team during the Louis Vuitton in Nice. But I would love to actually sail those boats properly and not just stand on the back! |
| Biggest influence in your career? | I think initially my dad and friends who got me into sailing, but racing and taking it to a higher level it has to be Shirley Robertson. |
| My best moment (sailing)? | After the Olympics in Athens in 2004, I wasn’t competing, I had trialled for it, but I was really quite young and had only been in the Performance squad for a year. I was Shirley’s training partner and was so excited about sailing. After that I joined a match racing team in the States and we won the World Championships, and then won them the year after, and it was just a period in my career where it was a great time, sailing was really fun, and I went beyond my own expectations. |
| My worst moment (sailing)? | In Hyeres, in one of the classic Mistral breezes, we had chartered a Yngling, and it leaked, and we started sinking! We sank whilst racing, it took us 2.5 hours to beat back upwind whilst bailing out. |
| Favorite place in UK to sail? | Its got to be home, Poole Harbour! |
| Best sailing venue in the World? | There are so many locations, Bermuda or Palma I think. |
| If you weren’t a professional sailor what else would you be? | I think I would be involved in some kind of teaching probably in sport. |
| How do you progress from a club sailor to an Olympic class sailor? | The progression from club sailing to Olympic sailing has many routes. I think you have to really, really love your sport. I think you need to maintain a healthy balance between sailing and your education when you are young, in order to progress. I think if you give up everything for sailing and training then you run the risk of getting fed up with the sailing. |
| Do you have a theme song? | Top Gun tunes |
| Any heroes? | Lance Armstrong, he’s just a full on 120% performer in everything that he does. |
| What would you love to do but never have the time or money for it? | Go on a holiday for a couple of weeks, seriously! |
| Worst habit? | Chatting to people on the way to the boat, so I keep my crew waiting on the dock! |
| Do you have any lucky charms or rituals? | I don’t like green on the boat. |
| Greatest fear or phobia? | Not a fan of heights. |
| Name 3 things that are always in your shopping trolley? | Semi skimmed milk, Marmite and Ringtons tea. |
| The last book you read? | Steve Redgrave's autobiography |