Clare Balding proves she is fit for sports TV without ’glamming up’

Clare Balding proves that female journalists don’t have to ‘glam up’, says Kay Cairns

WHY aren’t there more women in sports journalism? I asked that question of sports broadcaster Clare Balding, at the Croke Park launch of the Liberty Insurance WISE UP report on women in sport in Ireland.

Balding is eating in the pressroom, before she goes on stage. She’s in jeans and blazer, a far cry from her uncomfortable-looking, big, flowery Ascot hat-and-dress combo.

“I have to follow the dress code,” she says of Ascot. But for The Clare Balding Show, she does things her own way. “I’m not going to sit here in a tight, short dress, because I’m a female presenter.” It’s not just the broadcasters who have to look the part. Can you be a high-profile woman in sport and not have to sex it up?

According to the WISE UP report, for women a big emotional barrier about exercising is fear of being judged on their appearance: 32% of women who don’t exercise worry about how they look.

“Some of it is social expectation. What is feminine? I’m very keen not to limit people by stereotyping them into what boys should do and what girls should do. For example, I’d love to see Princess Elsa, in Frozen, suddenly playing ice hockey. She’s pretty feisty and my niece, Flora, absolutely loves her. But I see it with my nephews, saying to Flora, ‘You can’t do that, because you’re a girl.’ ”

The same words came from Balding’s dad.

“My father would think of lots of reasons why any girl, and especially his daughter, couldn’t present Grandstand. But if you don’t see a visible example of what you want to be, you have to be the first one.”

So pleased to meet Sonia O'Sullivan today @CrokePark & to lend support to @LibertyIRL campaign #supporthersport pic.twitter.com/BZOOn4A53K

— Clare Balding 💙 (@clarebalding) June 11, 2015

Balding is inarguably a role model for aspiring female sports journalists. She was the youngest of the female BBC gang, alongside Helen Rollason, Sue Barker and Hazel Irvine. Describing herself as “naive, and perhaps a little bit cocky”, she had to buck the trend of all male sports reporters.

As a commentator for golf and tennis, she says female reporters often get refused work because of their vocal range.

“When you get excited, can you commentate on a goal and your voice not crack?” She says men start commentating straight after their voices break, at 16 or 17, and so have time to make mistakes and work their way up the ladder.

Female voices take longer to mature, so that women often lose out on the opportunities. “I was lucky. I had base notes early on. But lots of women don’t, so I would get older female voices commentating, that would be my advice.” But by then women have gone in different directions. In golf, Balding’s the only female voice on the team.

FACING such regular knockbacks means women in sports journalism must have a thicker skin than the men. “It’s really easy to get knocked sideways, and particularly with social media, because you see it. In the old days, you might get one or two letters in green spidery writing, telling you you’re useless, but now you’re going to get 100 tweets telling you that, but you have to get over it. You have to believe in what you do, you have to constantly seek to improve, and you have to be able to take on board criticism from those you respect and use it in a positive way.”

As our brief interview draws to a close, we rush down to the conference a floor below, where there’s much discussion about what can be done to improve women’s visibility in sports.

Sonia O’Sullivan, former Irish Olympic athlete, said: “To improve the amount of women participating and the numbers of role models, we need to improve the coverage. A decent crowd makes the track seem smaller.”

Only 7% of media coverage is devoted to women’s sports, as stated in the WISE report.For Balding, the solution is also to be found in youth participation.

“You’ve got to get greater engagement of girls in schools, first. It needs good talent-spotters.”

For Ryle Nugent, head of RTÉ Sport, “women need a team to hit a big high to bring the nation in. They need to make an offering just too good to miss.”

The focus of the conference was getting people to pledge to bring their mothers, sisters, nieces, etc, to watch games and open them up to the world of competitive sport. You can make your pledge by tweeting with the hashtag #SupportHerSport