I LISTENED to an amazing podcast last week by sports journalist Michael McEwen. Michael has cerebral palsy which affects his right side, and his work to raise awareness of disability issues has taken him into the realms of radio broadcasting.
In Paralympians: The Pride of Scotland, he spoke with three Paralympian female athletes, Samantha Kinghorn, Libby Clegg and Robyn Love, all three of whom have been involved with Scottish Women in Sport (SW/S) in one way or another over the past seven years.
The podcast was brilliant and is still available on BBC Sounds app, should you want to catch it. All three women really explained the issues that have impacted on their sporting careers and how their strength and resilience, with help from various other sources, enabled them to continue and succeed in sport.
I was struck by Libby and the honest way she spoke about her feelings post-Rio. She said that a week or so after her return from a successful performance at the Rio Paralympics, where she won gold and broke the world record, she suddenly felt “without a purpose”.
I think in some way we can all understand that. Fortunately, with the right help she is now back on track and raring to go. The power of the podcast is quite amazing. In the right hands it allows for a conversation to flow, making the subject feel comfortable and able to open up about any issues that may be troubling for them.
SW/S is moving into the realms of podcasting and will release its first early next month.
There is absolutely no shortage of potential guests as we look around at what is happening in women’s and girls’ sport and we feel really blessed to have such a strong and diverse representation available to us to delve into.
The curtain is set for the 2020 Paralympics, kicking off tomorrow, and this will be an amazing show. Again, there will be strong representation from Scotland and this is in no small way down to the great work from Scottish Disability Sport.
I can’t wait to tune in and watch. Channel 4 once again have put their backing behind these games and from our recent blog on this subject, Kate Clayton, C4’s Paralympic Games executive, said: “We see the Paralympic Games as a huge opportunity to challenge stereotypes and champion minorities by bringing disability into the mainstream – and to do it with style and a sense of fun.”
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