Anna Tunnicliffe was born in
Doncaster,
England. Her parents owned a
yacht when she was a child and introduced her to
sailing. Anna moved to
Perrysburg, Ohio, in the
United States, with her family at the age of 12. She attended
Perrysburg High School and joined the
North Cape Yacht Club, racing
Optimists and other small boats for the next five years. In 1999 she began sailing the Laser Radial. Her first event in this boat was at the Leiter Cup in
Detroit,
Michigan. Despite her small build she advanced to the Smythe Finals for her area, where she was the only woman sailing. She participated in cross country, swimming, and track at the varsity level. In her senior year she won the district track championships in the 800 meters, setting a new high school record of 2 minutes 17.56 seconds. After choosing sailing over track, she decided to go to the
Old Dominion University to study and sail. In January 2014, Tunnicliffe announced her retirement from Olympic Sailing after 12 years of competition. She continues to pursue her professional CrossFit career. On October 23, 2017, Anna Tobias announced that she would become a team athlete in Crossfit with a team from T2Crossfit, the box she co-owns with her husband. She also qualified to compete in the Masters division (35–39) and went on to win that division at the 2018 CrossFit Games ==Awards==