The big interview Clare Balding
TV presenter in praise of female heroes
Would I have children? God no! I love kids because I don’t have any
TV presenter Clare Balding admits she will be harbouring a special wish when she steps on to the stage to host the BBC’S Sports Personality of the Year 2019 in Aberdeen.
She hopes British sprinter Dina Asher-smith – the fastest British woman in history and world champion at 200 metres – will be on the winners’ list.
The Oscars of the sporting calendar – held for only the second time in Scotland – will go ahead on December 15 at the Granite City’s new world-class entertainment venue P&J Live. Tickets for the 15,000-capacity arena sold out within five minutes of release. But millions more people will be able to tune into the glittering event – previously held at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro in 2014 – when it goes out live on BBC TV.
Its magnitude is not lost on award-winning broadcaster Clare, whose latest children’s book, The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance, is out now. It’s an aspirational story about overcoming fear to follow your dreams and find success.
And it chimes not only with the awards but with the life and work of the woman who has presented everything from the London Olympics to her own show and even the last Royal wedding, but who today reveals in P.S that she has struggled to overcome her own “crisis of confidence”.
Clare, whose work earned her an OBE, says: “The book is the last in the series. It was influenced by the work that I have done presenting the Paralympic Games, and working with Riding for the Disabled. It is all about what happens when your life changes completely and it has themes about friendship, how to include people in teams and get the best out of them.
“All round inclusion is a pretty strong belief of mine. If we can focus on getting the best out of ourselves and each other we actually can achieve way more than if we stay within our comfort zone. And I believe quite strongly in taking risks, giving ourselves permission to fail, and in keeping motivated by pushing that little bit further.
“For most of my working life I would have been identified as a racing presenter. But I cut right back on it when I started to not enjoy it as much. That was five years ago. Now I don’t do any because ITV has the contract. I had felt it was too limiting.
“I wanted to try different things where I wasn’t reliant on contacts I had had my whole life and where I had to rely on my instinct as a journalist and a broadcaster, and on my work ethic. That’s a scary thing to do.
“But when I suddenly was doing no racing at all, I had a bit of a crisis of confidence. I thought,‘what’s my purpose and how am I going to take this as an opportunity and turn it into something that is going to be good?’
“That is when I started thinking about doing more around women’s sport, and promoting women’s sport.
“In broadcasting and in most newspapers it’s a really rare thing to see coverage of women’s sport. I think that is disrespectful. It also misses an opportunity to have an audience and readership who aren’t being provided for.
“Female athletes are really accessible. Look at Dina Asher-smith, how incredibly eloquent she is, how she understands that promoting her sport is part of her job. I hope she will be on the list for Sports Personality of the Year. She is only 23 and has real potential for the next 10 years to be the most high profile, successful and respected athlete in this country.
“Sports like women’s football have grown hugely in status and the investment is increasing, but there’s still not enough work done in terms of match previews, match reports, and conversation around WSL (Women’s Super League) matches.
“We had a phenomenal summer. I am very excited about where women’s sport is, but I am even more excited about where I think it could be. And that takes consistent effort and a change in attitudes from people who are in positions to make decisions.
“I will keep banging the drum until the drum doesn’t need banging any more.
“People want more than just Premier League football. And there are vast swathes of people who won’t go to a Premier League match because they don’t like the atmosphere, they don’t like the environment and they don’t like what they see on the pitch. It is the attitude and behaviour pattern.
“I was with ex-england footballer Stuart Pearce the other night. He goes to a lot of rugby league, and I love rugby league. When you see the tackles players withstand; the way they respect their referee and get up and play on; the fact that they stay on the pitch after the match is finished and take their kids out there with them to say thank you to the fans...
“Stuart said,‘i look at that and then I look at football and think, what is happening?’ And I have thought that for a long time.” And she says that lack of