SailGP and US Olympic sailor Anna Weis is transforming the image of professional sailing.

Weis, 26, is the first full-time female grinder among 10 international teams competing in Sail Grand Prix, the upstart international league co-founded in 2018 by Oracle founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison and world champion yachtsman Sir Russell Coutts. Weis is leading a new generation of women sailors challenging preconceived notions of female athleticism.

"I'm working hard so that I can prove that it is possible," Weis says. "I'd be driven and motivated anyway, but that is a reason behind my motivation."

Grinders are the powerhouses of the team, producing the force that allows the crew to adjust the sails on the high-speed, 50-foot Catamarans, known as F50s. With speeds of more than 60 miles per hour, the league is gaining a reputation as 'Formula 1 on the water.'

Weis' role requires upper body strength, cardio fitness and the grit to compete in extreme sports. In May, she experienced a high speed capsize during a Bermuda training race. No one was hurt, but the crash was a stark reminder of the high-adrenaline, high-stakes of the sport she has chosen. 

"These boats — they're no joke," says Weis. "Every single move that we do needs to be with intention — a small mistake, like pressing a button, can cause you to catastrophically capsize."

Women's sports draw new fans, investment and sponsorship

The rising popularity of women's sports in the US — from basketball to soccer — is proving female athletes can draw new fans and investment to the business.

This year has been an especially successful time for women in sailing. In March, 29-year-old Cole Brauer became the first American female sailor to race solo around the world, taking home second place in a fleet of 16 and in April an international crew became the first all-female team to win an around-the-world yacht race.

Still, these are outliers: just 16% of competitors in regattas were women, according to online platform Yachtscoring 2020/21 data analyzed by Sailing World. A majority of female (80%) and male (56%) sailors believe the gender imbalance in the sport is an issue, according to a 2019 report from the World Sailing Trust.

SailGP is taking steps to create more opportunities for promising female athletes like Weis. It requires at least one woman on each boat, and in 2021 established the Women's Pathway program to create a pipeline and offer training. Twenty-five women have participated since its inception. 

The international racing league has grown to 11 teams, each with up to six sailors on board: the driver, who steers the boat; the strategist, who advises the driver in a tactical role; the wing trimmer, who adjusts the 85-to-90-foot carbon-fiber wing sail; the flight controller, who controls how high or low the boat flies over the water; and two grinders.

At least one sailor on each team must be a woman, and most in the league are strategists. (Among the sharpest is Emirates Great Britain team's strategist Hannah Mills OBE, the most successful female sailor in Olympic history.) It is rare to have women in the grinder role, like Weis, though the Swiss team rotates its primary female sailor, Laurane Mettraux, between the grinder and strategist role.

"It is an incredible challenge for Anna [Weis] to get into the same strength profile as some of the men that do her role," says Mike Buckley, United States SailGP team co-owner and strategist. "She's not too far off right now and she's just started." 

There are currently no female drivers, but in August, the league will announce the first ever female driver, Coutts, also SailGP's chief executive officer, tells CNBC. It's a move he believes will turbocharge the league's gender diversity efforts.

"Young girls that are watching the sport in the future, if they see one of their peers winning events, that's going to change things faster than anything we can do," he says.

Other changes are taking place within individual teams, at the investor and board level. In November, a group of investors led by Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital and including founding Uber engineer Ryan McKillen, Margaret McKillen, actress and producer Issa Rae and world champion heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder purchased the US Team.

They brought in three-time Olympic medalist Lindsey Vonn to the board of directors. Vonn's experience competing at the highest level of a sport coupled with her perspective as a female athlete is an invaluable asset to the team, Weis says.

"[Vonn] is such a legend — her opinion will be valued and something might change because of her opinion — which is a lot of power," she says.

Overcoming injury to represent the U.S. on the world stage

Weis learned to sail at her local yacht club in Fort Lauderdale at age 8. She credits her passion and self-motivation for keeping her in the sport.

In 2019 she overcame injury and operations in both arms to take home a gold medal in the 2019 Pan American Games as part of a two-person mixed gender team, alongside past US SailGP team member Riley Gibbs, in the foiling Nacra 17 class. (A Nacra 17 is a 17 foot mini catamaran, similar to the 50 foot boats in the SailGP league.)

"Having a setback like that, you just have to remember it's not the end of the world – you will come back from it," Weis says. "I wouldn't have been able to sail without the surgery, so I looked at it that way."

The duo became the first US sailing team in their class to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

They finished in ninth place and attracted the attention of SailGP's US team owners. Weis raced with them twice and, after new ownership took over, got a call from Buckley asking her to try out for the new team. At the time, Weis was studying at Boston College and more focused on rowing, but she seized the opportunity.

"I just had to trust my skills and what I had to offer," she says.

Weis has been public about her struggles in how to present herself in a male-dominated sport. Key to her success has been staying true to herself and owning her success, in spite of external pressures. Through the process, Weis says she has learned to believe she isn't just there to "check a box," but has earned her spot alongside the rest of the all-male team. 

"You are looked at differently, whether you want to believe it or not," she says. "The biggest thing that I've learned is just embracing who I am on the water — I need to believe that I deserve to be here, regardless of my gender." 

Though she did not qualify for the Paris Olympics, Weis has her sights set on Los Angeles in 2028, and one day wants to get into the fashion business. But right now she is laser-focused on helping SailGP become more competitive. (The US SailGP team finished ninth out of ten teams this season.) 

"We've got a really awesome team, and we're just at the start of it," she says.

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