Anna Gay studied at The First Academy for six years and made a decision to go Hybrid because she wanted more flexibility in her daily schedule. As a professional athlete, her schedule allows her to keep up with her studies when she’s traveling and gets her on the water much earlier in the day. Anna has been water skiing since she was two years old and started competing when she was six. Anna competes in slalom, trick, and jump, but tricks are her favorite event. She’s able to travel all over the world competing and making friends. She also skis for the United States team and represents her country internationally. Her biggest accomplishment has been winning and setting a record at the World Championships, earning over 10,000 points in tricks. She believes the flexibility and extra time training each day has contributed to her great success this year in competitions.
Her parents describe Anna as humble, joyful, thoughtful, and hardworking. They tell that she has a unique ability to compartmentalize. When she is studying she has 100% focus on school work and when skiing she leaves all else behind and focuses. They are proud she does not define herself only as a skier. They believe this helps her keep things in perspective, both successes and failures. She’s also not afraid to take on big challenges. She chose to run cross-country while continuing to pursue her goal of breaking the world record. This was a lot to take on, but TVA gave her the flexibility to do both. She learned to manage her time very well, a skill that will help her all through life.
Her teacher describes Anna as “an amazing student, but an even more amazing young woman. She is one of the leaders of the Comfort Club, whose purpose is to make everyone feel welcome and special. She is amazing at reaching out to others. As an athlete she is simply the greatest female skier of all time. She is the World Champion and World record holder. She does tricks that no other female has ever done. When she goes to a tournament she is a rock star, skiing royalty! However, at TFA she is the most humble genuine student we have walking the hallways.”
Her family competes in regionals and nationals and her father, brother and her get to compete at more of the professional events. She said “Breaking the world record was probably the most difficult thing I have ever done. I worked for years to get everything dialed in and one summer, every tournament was so close. Every time I had one little thing out of time because of a tiny mistake made somewhere else. Once you get the score, you never know if it is going to go through our not. So, actually get a record is amazing and extremely difficult. My favorite event is by far the Masters. I have attended every single year since I was born. It is a huge family event as we sponsor it and last year my dad, brother and I all skied in it. It is one of the greatest events to ski in and so much fun!”
She loves wake surfing, yoga, cycling classes and also training to do a half ironman.
Records
Current Women’s World Tricks Record holder (10,610 points)
Current World Championships Tricks Record Holder(10,010 points)
Current Girls 3 National Tricks Record Holder (10,610 points)
Current Open Women National Tricks Record Holder (10,610 points)
U.S. Open Tricks Record Holder (10,350 points)
Moomba Masters Course Record Holder (10,440 points)
U.S. Masters Course Record Holder (10,220 points)
Awards
2016 USA Water Ski Female Athlete of the Year
2015 American Water Ski Association Tricks Skier of the Year
Latest Career Highlights
2020 Moomba Masters – 2nd Place, Women’s Tricks
2019 Water Ski World Championships – Gold Medalist, Women’s Tricks; Silver Medalist, Team Overall; 6th Place, Women’s Overall
2019 America’s Cup Invitational – Women’s Tricks Champion
2019 GOODE Water Ski National Championships – Open Women Tricks Champion
2019 Masters – 2nd Place, Women’s Tricks
2019 Moomba Masters – Tricks Champion
Women Fitness President Ms. Namita Nayyar catches up with Anna Gay an exceptionally talented, Professional Water Skier, 2x World Record Holder and World Champion, here she talks about her workout, diet, beauty secrets and her success story.
Namita Nayyar:
You were born in Orlando and now live in Winter Garden, Florida. You started waterskiing at two years of age with your parents who are water skiers and your coach. You started competing at the age of six years. You won the 2013 Junior Masters – Girls’ Tricks Champion. This propelled your career as a Water skier to the height where you have been at the top of the world with winning the 2021 Water Ski World Championships Gold Medal, in the Women’s Tricks event. Tell us more about this professional journey of yours in the field of waterskiing that you have achieved by your hard work, tenacity, and endurance?
Anna Gay:
In 2013, I won the Junior Masters trick event with 6900 points. This was one of my first big junior wins and I was so excited. From here, I decided that I wanted to one day ski in the pro masters with everyone that I have always looked up to— Erika Lang, Clementine Lucine, Whitney McClintock, etc. That year I finished with my highest score being 7480 points.
The following year I was trying new runs and had a difficult time putting my run together. In 2015, I qualified to ski in my first Pro Masters. I was so excited, but it was a difficult decision as I had to decide to move up to the pro scene or do another year in the junior event. If I wanted to move up, I would no longer be able to ski in the junior event anymore. For me, this meant foregoing overall as well as risking not making the pro event the following year. However, I wanted to ski in the pro event with my dad, Russell Gay, so I decided to move up. It was a very special event and a decision I was very glad that I made. That summer, at the Southern Regional Championships, I tricked 9300 points.
I was so excited to finally put up a huge score as well as securing a spot for myself to ski in the Masters the following year. From there, I won the event in 2016 with 10,010 points and was the first woman to every trick over 10,000 points on Robin Lake. I also won the event this year with 10,190 points.
Full Interview is Continued on Next Page
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