Professional Jet Skier Anna Glennon, 28, cut her teeth on watersports when she was just a toddler at the Lake of the Ozarks, according to her grandmother.
“I have a picture of Anna with me on a Sea Doo with a pacifier in her mouth,” says Bonnie Glennon of Overland Park. “Now she’s a World Champion and 8-time U.S. and Canadian National Champion.”
Anna grew up at her family’s lake home, where she and younger sister, Jessie, learned to ride stand-up jet skis. Anna credits her father, John, with her start in racing.
“My father was a gear head growing up and studied to become a master mechanic,” Anna says. “His influence led me to find an interest in motors and powersports at a young age, and he made a point to teach me the mechanical side of things—I wasn't allowed to sit on my hands by any means. My younger sister raced for a short time, before she found her own passion as a musician. My mother is the glue that keeps us together and taught us to be kind and gracious. My parents did a great job helping us find our passions and turn them into careers.”
Anna recalls her dad taking them to a race in Lawrence, KS when she was about 15.
“My sister and I saw 10-year-olds racing, and I jokingly told my dad that we could easily do this. That was the only sign he needed! He researched how we could compete in our first race, and we started piecing together our own program.”
In 2013, Anna won her first national championship. With her dad as her mechanic, Anna took the Men’s Classic Two-Stroke World Championship title. To date, she remains the only woman to do so in International Jet Sports Boating Association history.
After graduating from the University of Central Missouri (Warrensburg) in digital media communications, she moved to the Jet Ski capital of the world, Lake Havasu, AZ, to continue training and to focus on marketing and media in powersports.
Known as Jetgirl777, Anna is now the owner of MotorActionMedia.com and Jet Girls Racing. Her work has been featured in nearly every personal watercraft magazine in the world, along with video production on YouTube’s Jet Girls Racing.
“Unlike a lot of professional racers, I still maintain a day job as a PR executive,” Anna says. “I also build and maintain all my personal race equipment myself and do all my personal marketing. It's a lot of work, but it all pays off.”
Her biggest payoff yet is her recent 1stplace finish in the E1, the world's first all-electric powerboat championship sanctioned by the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM), the world governing body of powerboating.
The championship features 12 mixed-gender teams competing in electric RaceBirds. Several celebrities have become owners, including NFL’s Tom Brady, Actor/Producer Will Smith, and Team Miami, owned by Musician Marc Anthony—five-time Grammy winner and minority owner of the Miami Dolphins.
Anna signed with Team Miami as a pilot, along with Erik Stark of Sweden. The competition began in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on February 2, 2024 and will conclude in Hong Kong in November at the Grand Prix Finale.
“Joining the E1 World Championship has been one of my favorite adventures of my career,” Anna says. “I was invited to participate in their Pilot Academy last year. I was trained by official UIM instructors in powerboat racing and tested the one-of-a-kind RaceBird in Lake Maggiore, Italy.”
Based on those results, Anna received offers from other race teams, but she chose Team Miami.
“It’s been a joy to be with Team Miami. The energy and environment have been wonderful, and it all starts with Marc. While he may be a superstar, he levels with us as human beings and lives every minute with us. The whole team is fiery and passionate about racing, yet we've come together like a family despite being thrown together in this unique new adventure.”
Anna says at the season opener in Saudi Arabia she was just hoping to run a good race. “We ended up qualifying 10 seconds faster than everyone else. It was eye-opening that we could be competitive in this championship.”
Then came Venice, Italy and more recently Puerto Banus, Spain, where they battled conditions the RaceBird had never experienced. Choppy waters, 10-foot swells and technical failures eliminated Team Brady and others, but Team Miami raced to 1st place in front of thousands of spectators.
Anna says the journey has been incredible.
“As a kid from Kansas, I cannot express how grateful I am for this opportunity,” she says. “Not only to represent my country, but to represent ‘the little guy.’ On top of living out a childhood dream, I’m also a part of something bigger. E1 Series works to preserve and restore precious waterways through charitable projects. As someone who grew up around the water—and whose life was ultimately shaped by it—it means a lot to be part of a race series that also doubles down on good causes.”
Anna says she’s grateful for support from friends and family throughout her career.
“These days I tackle a lot of challenges alone, but I feel confident knowing I have great people in my corner who care about me. As someone who grew up an outcast, an ugly duckling, and felt as though the world kept trying to beat me down—it's important for me to remind people to keep pushing. Hard work is rewarded, good people connect with good people, and at some point, a door will open for you to stick your foot in it. I'm very proud of the person I’ve become thanks to powersports. I used to be so shy and unsure of myself. Powersports has given me a new passion for life. To race around the world as part of my career—it’s a dream.”