23 February 2024 , 16:48
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Singing sailor Hannah Snellgrove admits music has been her saviour when waves have become choppy on the water.
Snellgrove, 33, is the newest member of Team GB’s 2024 Olympic squad having been selected to occupy the quota spot she earned in sailing’s ILCA 6 class. She forms one half of folk band Bimbling away from the water and believes finding her voice has had a beneficial impact on her performance as an athlete.
“It was part of my quarter-life crisis when I lost my funding,” she said. “In the process of not really knowing what to do, I realised I missed music and I owned a guitar I couldn’t really play. I learned enough to accompany myself singing, started playing in local pubs and found a lovely music scene of people who became great friends.
“It gave me a real positive focus in that time and I still love it. It’s a way I relax outside sailing and it has given me more confidence. I stopped doing it after school as I used to get so nervous that I didn’t actually enjoy it any more. That used to be me with sailing as well.
Snellgrove is relishing her selection after being unsuccessful in three previous cycles stretching back to London 2012 (Nick Dempsey/RYA)“Now, I will just happily pick up a guitar and start singing in front of people, which I never used to be able to do. I do harness some of the things that enable me to do that on the water when I’m competing. It has definitely helped with the nerves.”
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Snellgrove’s musical influence is spreading around the sailing squad, who will be based in Marseille rather than Paris for their races come the summer. She taught Oasis classic Wonderwall and Tracy Chapman’s Talkin’ Bout A Revolution to a colleague at last summer’s Olympic Test Event while there are more strings to her bow than just covers.
“We once played a really tiny gig at Bere Regis and I had a message afterwards from a chap in the audience about a song I wrote called Time and Tide,” said Snellgrove, whose pathway to Paris is being powered by the support of ALDI, who provide all GB Olympians and Paralympians with monthly food vouchers.
“He asked for a recording of it, which I sent to him, and he said it basically described the day he met his wife, who had recently passed away. It meant so much to him, which was lovely.
“There was also the time I was busking and a man walked past. He later walked back past and gave me a pound, saying ‘it was you or a chocolate cupcake’. That is probably the best honour I’ve ever had!”
A place on an Olympic podium would top that but for now Snellgrove is simply relishing her selection, having been unsuccessful in three previous cycles stretching back to London 2012.
“It’s a culmination of 15 years of hard work, not just by me, by a lot of people who have helped along the way,” she said. “Since finding out I was going, I’ve had flashbacks to all these random moments along the way where I’ve been helped out in completely different ways by friends, family and people I barely know.
“It’s so humbling and it’s a combination of all those acts of human kindness and hard work. It’s special to me because I know it’s special to a lot of people I really care about. It is a real team effort.”
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