Member Profile

Atlanta Hawks/Orland Pride owner and NBA All-Star, Grant Hill; Allison Abner (writer for Narcos, West Wing, Imperfect Women) and award-winning filmmaker (and Olympian) Mary Mazzio are teaming up again to produce a new documentary film project about the first all-women’s sailing team to contend for the famed America’s Cup. This team was groundbreaking, as the America’s Cup had been effectively off-limits to women from 1851 until the 1980’s (with the sole exception of three women in the late 1800s and early 1900s, two of whom gamely held a stopwatch.) It is a story full of full of wild moments, beginning with an advertisement in the New York Times (prompting hilarious responses from a wide swath of Americana who thought they might have what it takes to sail in the America’s Cup, including a woman flexing in a string bikini next to a cactus). From there, a team of Olympic sailors and rowers came together, captained by Dawn Riley (the only woman to lead an America’s Cup syndicate herself in 2000). What they were able to achieve was almost unthinkable. This new project, where the women will come together to sail again, is a rousing call to young girls to get out there, get dirty, face failure, explore and push limitations, challenge glass ceilings, develop confidence, and ultimately learn what it means to be a good teammate and leader, both on and off the field.