July 16, 2012

By Lee Tolliver
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 16, 2012

Anna Tunnicliffe-Funk was a child of the wind.

Born in England to a family of sailors, she found herself on sailboats from the beginning.

Still, it wasn't a sure bet she would follow the same path as other members of her family. She competed in distance running and swimming after her family moved to Ohio when she was 12. And she was a good enough runner to win conference championships and set school records in the 800 meters.

But the breezes always called.

"There was never any pressure to sail," Tunnicliffe-Funk, 29, said last week. "I tried lots of stuff to mix things up when I was in school. But we always sailed.

"I loved all of those other things, but sailing turned out to be my thing."

The wind eventually took her to Old Dominion University, where she helped make the school's sailing program one of the best in the country with four national championships.

Read the full article by Tolliver on Tunnicliffe here.

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