Hannah White
Hannah White has completed a mind boggling array of adventures on land and sea over the years as well as becoming a broadcaster. From sailing solo across the Atlantic (3,200 miles across) THREE times, to adventures on every continent apart from Antarctica, she is not adventure shy!
Hannah has a great outlook on the adventures she undertakes and is full of life lessons that can easily be converted into everyday life. Her starting point is fascinating though - she is passionate in her belief that anyone can do anything. “People ask what I have done and they say they couldn’t do that. It’s rubbish! Anyone can sail solo across the Atlantic or do anything!” The foundation for her is that if she can do it, anyone can. As she says: “…anyone can do anything, it just takes time, preparation, commitment and dedication.”
This message is so removed from what is only too often see in the media and especially on reality TV of an attitude of “I can’t, it’s impossible,” and so on. Hannah’s faith in the everyday man and woman has seen her host “Go Hard Or Go Home,” a series where she takes ‘Joe Public’ and over the course of twelve weeks turns them into people who compete in some of the most challenging races around the world. For her it’s not just talk: she herself has proved it can be done, and she has gone on national television with members of the public and proved it as well.
Her belief comes from her school days where, as she explains, “I was a good all rounder, I was pretty good at a lot of things but excellent at none. There were maths prizes and geography prizes and so on. Sailing and adventure gave me that outlet as there were so many things to do within sailing.” This passion and the need to be proficient at many things was a perfect fit for Hannah and she found her niche quickly.
Competition and winning is not what drives Hannah though, which is interesting. As she explained, “...it’s about telling the story for me, it’s about all the people supporting me and letting them know what’s going on. It’s about the journey and adventure rather than winning.” It’s not that Hannah doesn’t want to win, of course not, she is as competitive as any but it’s about her motivation. The motivation is to go away with more than a piece of silverware at the end of an adventure. She wants to grow and learn from her adventures but interestingly, she wants the people sponsoring her, following her and supporting her to come on that journey with her. This is what makes Hannah stand out and why she is our Outstanding Athlete this issue: her ability not only to ‘adventure’, but her focus and desire to be inclusive of the everyday person and her implicit belief that “anyone can do anything”.