Barbara Slater: making sure women in sport are seen and heard

It is almost 40 years since Barbara Slater carried the British flag at the 1976 Summer Olympics, but the former gymnast can still do an impressive back somersault.

The BBC’s 56-year-old Director of Sport recently astonished a young man who was showing her around her local gym by getting on the trampoline, dressed in full “business lady attire”, and executing several somersaults.

“He didn’t know what to make of me,” she laughs. “I was on the trampoline before he could say anything. I have never seen anybody so shocked.”

I am chatting to Slater in the gleaming headquarters of BBC North at Media City, Salford. One of her major undertakings after being appointed the BBC’s first female Director of Sport in 2009 was to manage the department’s move up north.

Her other huge task was the 2012 London Olympic Games. Slater was responsible for the BBC’s sports coverage across all its platforms. The Games became the biggest national TV event in UK broadcasting history and led to Slater winning the Inspirational Woman prize at the Women in Film and Television Awards that year. In 2014, she was appointed OBE for services to broadcasting.

Alongside these dazzling achievements, Slater has played a key role in making women athletes more visible. Earlier this year, BBC Sport won Media Outlet of the Year in the Women’s Sport Trust’s inaugural #BeAGameChanger Awards for its work in showcasing women; it was noted that the department devoted 32 per cent of its live television output to female athletes in 2014.

You can read this article in full on the Independent website.