Georgie Ainslie and Hannah Mills are reshaping their respective fields with innovative approaches to sleep, performance, and sustainability. Georgie, co-creator of NIGHT POWDER, draws on insights from elite sports to revolutionise rest and recovery, while Hannah, a two-time world champion sailor and Women’s America’s Cup skipper, is paving the way for female sailors and young athletes.

In this exclusive interview, they share the inspirations behind NIGHT POWDER, the transformative role of rest in performance, and their shared passion for fostering future talent in sailing and beyond.

Nicolle: What inspired you to develop NIGHT POWDER, and how did your experiences in elite sports shape its creation?

Georgie Ainslie: I’ve always loved sport and everything it stands for; preparation, teamwork, shared highs and lows, overcoming the odds… all those things are what we need to master to navigate life better. There are plenty of lessons to take from elite sports into everyday life including how athletes perform and for obvious reasons they do it better than most. Being on the inside of a professional sailing team I could see how my husband Ben and his teammates prioritised sleep, rest and recovery and in doing so what they did for their performance. I started asking questions of the human performance team; could I have what they were having the answer that came back was yes and that is how we alighted on NIGHT POWDER.

Nicolle: Can you elaborate on the role of rest and recovery in the performance of elite athletes and how NIGHT POWDER supports these aspects?

Georgie Ainsley: Preparation is everything in elite sports. There’s an old adage, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ and that rings very true to the professional athlete. Rest and recovery are now seen as a fundamental part of the performance piece. It is key to give your mind and body what they need crucially. NIGHT POWDER supports rest and recovery in all of us by combining hero ingredients Saffron extract to help support relaxation and CherryPURE Montmorency Tart Cherry powder extract containing significant anthocyanin levels. We can’t guarantee longer sleep but we can guarantee better quality sleep.

Nicolle: How did you select the key ingredients like affron® Saffron, CherryPURE®, and L-Glycine, and what makes them effective for improving sleep and recovery?

Georgie Ainslie In creating NIGHT POWDER we focused all our attention on circadian rhythms and the 24-hour internal body clock, something we’ve all got in common, athlete or otherwise. Giving your body what you need when you need it most is crucial. The effectiveness of doing this, the right ingredients at the right time can be significant. Affron Saffron, Montmorency Tart Cherry and L-Glycine are the hero ingredients in NIGHT POWDER, stronger together and used in meaningful doses for impact.

Nicolle: What were some of the most surprising results from the 12-week consumer trial of NIGHT POWDER?

Georgie Ainslie: For those wearing tracking devices sleep scores improved from 73% after one week to 85% after 12 weeks. The quality of sleep went up from 80% after one week to 91% after 12 weeks. After 12 weeks 92% would recommend it to a friend.

Nicolle: How does NIGHT POWDER differentiate itself from other supplements on the market aimed at improving sleep and recovery?

Georgie Ainslie: We come from a place which understands better than most what performance can look like with great sleep, rest and recovery. That elite sports thinking is in everything we do, including our formulation for NIGHT POWDER.

Nicolle: What can consumers expect from your next product launch in early 2025, and how will it build on the success of NIGHT POWDER?

Georgie Ainslie: NIGHT POWDER gives you what you need tonight to rest and recover.

DAY POWDER out early next year gives you what you need tomorrow to improve your immunity and energy. These performance powders have been designed to work in harmony with one another to give you 24/7 better everyday performance.

Nicolle: How has your experience in competitive sailing, from your early days in the Welsh National Optimist Squad to becoming a two-time world champion, shaped your approach to leadership in the Women’s America Cup?

Hannah Mills: My experiences throughout life have massively shaped my approach to leadership in the Women’s America's Cup but also everything else I do – whether it’s being a Mummy to Sienna, being a wife or working on my environmental projects within the sport. Sport is an amazing thing for young people to be involved with, learning about resilience, perseverance, goal setting and in particular for me – communication.

For me, communication is critical to good leadership and I’ve seen time and time again throughout my competitive career how communication can make or break teams and their success. Another critical element for me is really thinking about your team, who they are as people and what support they need to be successful and deliver their best performance when it really matters.

Nicolle: What inspired you and Sir Ben Ainslie to launch the Athena Pathway, and what impact do you hope it will have on the future of female and youth sailing?

Hannah Mills: The announcement of the Women’s America’s Cup event as the first ever one, alongside the Youth Americas Cup event back in 2021 gave Ben and me the platform to launch the Athena Pathway to really try and inspire the next generation of sailors that there is a pathway in their sport to the Olympics, but also to the professional side of the sport – the Americas Cup and Sail GP as well as other professional sailing leagues. This has largely been missing and I believe we lose a lot of sailors because they can’t see the route for themselves beyond the Olympics.

It was also an opportunity to give more women a route into shoreside roles within our sport and showcase their exceptional talents to young people, showing that a career in the marine industry is for everyone. In our sport, it takes a team of people on shore to keep the boats operational, the team is full of engineers, sailmakers and boat builders so showcasing that side of the pathway for us was also a key factor.

Nicolle: As the skipper of the British team in the first Women’s America’s Cup, what challenges and opportunities do you see for female sailors in this historic event?

Hannah Mills: I think the challenges are largely the same as in most industries. But I see 2 key ones to overcome. There’s still a lot of conscious or unconscious negative bias towards women in the sailing industry, however, events like the Women’s America's Cup massively help move the needle because you are giving a platform to showcase what women can do when given the opportunity, but also for me the important part is the knock-on for the next generation – keeping more young girls in our sport, increasing the talent pool and slowly hopefully having a much better balance of men and women competing at the top level of our sport.

Many roles on sailing boats aren’t physical and so it is one of the few sports where this isn’t a barrier to competing at the highest level. The other big challenge is closing the experience gap for women in this type of sailing – foiling is a relatively new form of sailing and really took off back in 2013 with the America's Cup in San Fransisco.

At this time, it was all men sailing in the Cup and so as foiling developed there grew a big disparity between the top men in our sport and the top women in our sport and their skills/knowledge when it came to foiling. Again, events like the Women's America’s Cup is a great start to trying to bridge this gap and I’m confident that with more events like this, there will come a time when we see men and women competing together again in the America's Cup itself.

Nicolle: How has becoming a mother to Sienna influenced your perspective on balancing elite athletic performance with family life?

Hannah Mills: It’s made me more efficient! I have to be much more organised with my day to ensure I create the time with Sienna in the morning and evening before and after nursery, whether that’s getting up before her (not always easy!) to fit training in or get some work done then that’s what I do as I find it difficult if I’m not spending enough time with her. I also try and involve her as much as I can and ensure she feels a part of it all. She often is outside with me when I’m doing my gym or circuit training, or she will come with me to sailing competitions with my husband Nick.

Having them there when I get off the water – there’s no better feeling! I need to get enough sleep as a mother, as well as being a sportswoman, so I always incorporate ainslie + ainslie NIGHT POWDER into my daily routine. The product's formulation has been created to support rest and recovery not only for myself as a sportswoman but for those, including myself, looking for better daily performance at home and in general life. Sleep is key to improving my energy and overall well-being each day, whether that’s when I’m competing in sports, or as a mother daily.

Nicolle: With your extensive experience in high-performance sports, both personally and through your husband Nick Dempsey’s achievements, how do you integrate this knowledge into coaching and mentoring young sailors?

Hannah Mills: I think both Nick and I have experienced and learnt so much through being involved in elite sport for so long. We both feel incredibly lucky to have had these experiences and so the opportunity to support and mentor other young sailors is a privilege. I like to share my own experiences throughout my sailing career as much as I can, hoping that different sailors will take the lessons that a relevant to them from the stories I share. However there’s always an element of when it’s the right time to do so, just telling young sailors the right answer, but trying to help them understand the why is equally as important.

Nicolle: What does it mean to you to have been recognized with an MBE and OBE for your contributions to sailing and the environment, and how do these honours motivate your future goals in the sport?

Hannah Mills: It’s a huge honour to be recognised for both these things that are hugely important to me. I don’t think I’m driven by these things though, my drive is much more from within myself to want to achieve and inspire others through my achievements. But also to make a positive difference in the world if I can and most importantly try and support campaigns and projects that are working towards making the Earth a safer and healthier place to live for our generation and future generations. Sienna has increased my resolve and drive for this!

From pioneering sleep solutions with NIGHT POWDER to breaking barriers in competitive sailing, Georgie Ainslie and Hannah Mills exemplify the power of innovation and leadership in their fields. Their dedication to improving performance—whether through enhancing rest or mentoring the next generation—highlights a commitment to progress that transcends their individual endeavours. As Georgie looks ahead to the launch of DAY POWDER and Hannah continues her impactful work in the Women’s America’s Cup and environmental advocacy, they remain inspiring figures in their respective domains.

To learn more about NIGHT POWDER, visit ainslieandainslie.com, and stay tuned for updates on Hannah’s journey in the Women’s America’s Cup and her ongoing efforts to inspire the next generation of sailors.

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Nicolle Knapova is a little bit of everything. She is a freelance translator and content creator. She loves indie music and is always browsing through Spotify to find the next amazing artist to obsess over. Her love for storytelling means she’s always writing something and she’s not afraid of any genre. Her biggest dream is to be a published author. If she’s not writing her fan fiction, she’s writing her poetry and sharing it on her Instagram @elisecaverly.

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