McINTYRE Eilidh

General
CREWMATE
After splitting with her former crewmate Jessica Lavery, she teamed up with Hannah Mills in January 2017 with a view to competing together at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Mills had won gold in the 470 class at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, and claimed silver four years earlier in London. "I made the first move but Hannah really made me chase her for a bit. I just phoned her up and asked if she'd sail with me in Tokyo and she was really non-committal, it was a bit like asking someone out and being told they'd like to be just be friends. I'd hoped Hannah was going to come back for Tokyo and it was always there at the back of my mind. She did tell me I was her best chance of winning gold in Tokyo in the same phone call, so I thought, 'That's not a no, then'. We went out sailing together and had a bit of a laugh and it all worked out in the end. I felt a lot of pressure when we teamed up. When we won our first major regatta, then the world championships last year [2019], it was such a relief, I felt like I had earned my worth." (theguardian.com, 25 Jul 2020; teamgb.com, 14 Oct 2019; bbc.co.uk, 29 Mar 2019)

PLASTIC PLEDGE
She is a supporter of her sailing partner Hannah Mills' environmental campaign Big Plastic Pledge. The campaign aims to encourage athletes and sports fans to help clean up the planet's oceans. "As my sailing career blossomed I got to go to some of the most amazing places in the world and everywhere I went, plastic followed me in the oceans. I am passionate about changing our single-use disposable lifestyle and the damage it's doing to something which gives me so much joy." (elephantbox.co.uk, 03 Apr 2019)