Anna Kessel

A note from our Women’s Sports Editor

If sport is what keeps us sane – moving our bodies, playing in a team, running in a group, sweating in a Zumba class – then the November lockdown has been a challenging time for many women.

Over the last few weeks Telegraph Women’s Sport has charted how women have coped with and responded to the conditions. From elite women’s sport being cancelled, including the Six Nations and England football friendlies against Germany and Norway, to the millions of women and girls affected by the closure of swimming pools, gyms and grass-roots sport. In a period of uncertainty, with rising levels of anxiety, it was a loss that hit hard. More than ever, we needed our sporting relief.

So, this month we are looking to the sports and sporting figures who have kept us going over the last few weeks. We take a trip to the calming waters in Nottinghamshire where top carp angler Beverley Clifford spends her time to hear about one of the few sports that escaped the ban, and why fishing is bringing joy to thousands more women this year.

Youtube yoga sensation Adriene Mishler shares the little-known story behind her rise from budding horror actress to globally renowned yogi, and talks about how millions of people stuck indoors have benefited from home workouts.

Some of Britain’s leading sportswomen explain why they are so besotted with their dogs, and the comfort of a canine during such an unsettling and, for many, lonely period. Could we ever see dogs on court at Wimbledon? Britain’s Katie Swan is certainly keen.

Alongside the tales of joy, we explore the darker side. How sportswomen have struggled to cope this year, particularly those with existing mental health conditions, such as British speed skater Elise Christie. The triple world champion opens up to Pippa Field about living with anxiety, and trying to get back on track ahead of the next Winter Olympics, in an extraordinarily honest interview. Then Fiona Tomas continues her commitment to revealing the extent of how concussion affects sportswomen with a powerful trio of interviews with three fathers who lost their daughters to head injuries, and their pleas for how sport needs to better protect its female participants.

Paralympian Stef Reid reiterates this message of how sports science needs to redouble its efforts in understanding the female body, writing exclusively for Telegraph Women’s Sport about her journey as a sportswoman, and why she will never take for granted the transformative power of sport.