Speaking in a new podcast episode for General Talk, hosted by Harry Bucknall, BBC Sports presenter Gabby Logan talks to broadcaster Simon McCoy about her impressive career as one of the country’s leading sports presenters.
In a lively and good-humoured conversation, Gabby, a 1990 Commonwealth Games rhythmic gymnastics competitor, celebrates the progress in women’s sport during the past decade and expresses her deep appreciation of the “human side of sport”: the challenges faced by committed sports people when getting to the top.
Gabby talks at length about the profile of women in sports broadcasting, compared with when she first started her career at Sky Sports. This reflects a growing prominence in women’s sport on TV, especially rugby (Gabby’s favourite). As she puts it:
“If it’s good competitive sport, it doesn’t matter who’s playing it.”
Gabby also looks back to the London 2012 Olympics as a moment when the UK had pride as a nation and came together. She recalls how 18,000 military personnel stepped in to manage the security arrangements so efficiently; and how “the Army did it with a smile.” Here she draws a lesson from the wider ethos of the Armed Forces: “Working together, doing something noble.” The London Paralympics also “led to so many champions being born and changed the way we look at disability.”
In the context of using sport to raise mental health awareness, Gabby praises the work of prominent sports role models:
“When they talk about mental health it becomes so much more accessible for the people who revere them, and it cuts through so well.”
To hear more from Gabby, including her favourite World Cup, memories of a gym session with Andy Murray and who she would most like to interview in the future, listen to our new episode of General Talk.
