New Year Honours List: Britain’s finest
A long list of heroes who have served their sport, either by representing it on the world stage or working to widen opportunities, were honoured in the 2019 New Year Honours List. Kath Hudson asks award winners what it means to them and how it might impact their sport
Netball: England player
It’s great to see netball recognised on the wider stage, not just among other sports, but among other professionals and people who have given great service to this country. For a netballer to receive such a high honour is unusual, so hopefully it will pave the way for people to take our sport more seriously and see all the added benefits that come with it.
Lifting the profile, so more people will want to watch, invest and play the sport is the current priority for netball. This will help strengthen the Superleague, England’s elite domestic competition, which in turn supports the future of us and our Roses programme. This award comes at a time when keeping active and being social is important and a team sport like netball is great for that.
Fencing: Olympian and administrator
I think it’s fair to say that the biggest challenge for fencing in Britain is the ever-shrinking funding environment, meaning the sport will increasingly rely on an army of volunteers to help create opportunities for participation. At the elite end, the challenge is the absence of stable long term investment in a sport which takes VERY many years to develop a potential medallist, and in an environment where more and more countries are doing just that.
At the international federation level I would cite two major challenges: the need to generate more TV/internet/social media visibility, and the task of continuing the globalisation of the sport.
Show Racism the Red Card: VICE President
My priority is to make tackling racism, and all other forms of discrimination, a top priority for everyone involved in football. I hope that for many years to come football will assist organisations such as Show Racism the Red Card to tackle racism in both sport and society.
This award helps to raise the profile of my work and hopefully more people will support our organisation and the work it carries out in schools and educational settings. I am extremely proud to be receiving the award but it doesn’t mean the hard work can stop, we still have a lot of work to do to eradicate racism from both football and society.
World Curling Federation: president
It’s an exciting time for our sport, as we look towards the Tokyo Olympics. Challenges in the sport include working with our member associations to make sure they have access to, or are working towards, high quality curling ice. We are also making changes at elite level which will offer more opportunities to our member associations to qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and improve the standard of competition at all levels.
We have signed a new five-year partnership with the World Academy of Sport, which is helping us to develop our educational resources for umpires, athletes and officials and to overhaul our camps and courses programme to increase its global reach.
Rowing: Olympic silver medalist
Being awarded an MBE is hugely rewarding recognition for the 21 years I spent on the British Rowing team. I hope it portrays the values I drew on every one of those days – of working hard, with no guarantee it would all work out and having the belief in doing something that wasn’t normal. For me, the relationships I formed with the people I had the huge fortune to call my teammates was the greatest reward of the sport.
Women’s Sports Trust: co-founders and joint chief executives
We are excited about the progress that has been made in women’s sport, but there’s still so much to be done. Our focus now is on mainstreaming women’s sport so that it is seamlessly woven into media schedules, accessible throughout the year and an integral part of brands’ investment portfolios.
Athletes are also telling us that they need help building their personal brands and understanding how they can commercialise themselves, and we feel this is an area where we can really help. We believe that if we can empower athletes from the grassroots we can accelerate change.
We genuinely believe women’s sport has the power to stimulate social change and gender equality, but to do this we need to influence the influencers. Hopefully this award will get us in the room with the people who can help us, as well as inspire athletes to be activists too.
Activity Alliance: outgoing chair
Disabled people are twice as likely as non-disabled people to be physically inactive and Activity Alliance brings our members, partners and disabled people together to make active lives possible. Collectively we continue to challenge perceptions and change the reality of disability, inclusion and sport.
This award reflects the huge significance of Activity Alliance’s work in supporting disabled people to be active for life. I hope it helps more organisations and leaders to ensure disabled people are considered as part of every strategy and delivery programme.
The Daily Mile: founder
I’m delighted to receive the honour of MBE and believe this will help to raise the profile of The Daily Mile even further. It’s an important initiative because it’s sustainable, transferable to all settings and is scalable to a national cohort of children.
Children enjoy it, which is the route to success. It also means that children are fit enough to access the wonderful range of sporting and physical education opportunities available in this country. Research from the Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh shows that The Daily Mile impacts obesity and that children who have been doing it for seven months lose up to 4 per cent of the excess fat in their skin folds.
Former England cricket captain,
for services to cricket
Former England rugby union captain, for services to rugby union
Commonwealth Games Federation president, for services to sport
Kate Caithness: World Curling Federation president, for services to sport
Willie John McBride: former Ireland and Lions captain, for services to rugby union
Richard Scudamore: Premier League executive chair, for services to football
Geva Mentor: England netball player and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold medalist, for services to netball
Maureen Campbell: former chair of Scottish Swimming, for services to swimming
Harry Gregg: former Manchester United goalkeeper and Northern Ireland manager, for services to football
Richard Johnson: jump jockey, for services to horse racing
Professor Mary Nevill: head of sports science, school of science and technology at Nottingham Trent University, for services to sport and sports science
Gareth Southgate: England manager, for services to football
Gerain Thomas: 2018 Tour de France winner, for services to cycling
Doddie Weir: founder of My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, for services to rugby, motor neurone disease research and to the community in the Scottish Borders
Enid Bakewell:former England all rounder, for services to cricket
Roger Blades: for services to athletics and school sport
Lorna Boothe: former British Athletics team manager, for services to sports coaching and administration
Joanna Bostock: Women’s Sports Trust, for services to gender equality in sport
Karen Brown: former England and Great Britain defender and former England and Great Britain assistant coach for services to hockey
Hew Chalmers: British Curling director and British Olympic Association board member for services to Olympic sport
Derek Crawford: for services to rugby union
David Dein: former Arsenal and Football Association vice-chair for services to football and to voluntary work in schools and prisons
Thomas Dowens: former Scottish Volleyball Association director of coaching and former Scotland senior men’s national volleyball team head coach, for services to volleyball
Paula Dunn: UK Athletics Paralympic head coach, for services to athletics
Ray Goodwin: for services to canoeing
Keith Hardy: for services to football and the community in Staffordshire
Richard Hill: disability cricket support officer with England and Wales Cricket Board for services to disability cricket
Frances Houghton: British Rowing team member and three times Olympic silver medallist, for services to British Rowing
Peter Jacobs: competed in individual and team epee for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, for services to British and international fencing
Helen Jenkins: three times ITU world championship title winner, for services to triathlon
Harry Kane: England captain, for services to football
John Lowe: three times world champion for services to darts and to charity
Gareth McAuley: Rangers and Northern Ireland defender, for services to football in Northern Ireland
Caroline Matthews: competed in wheelchair basketball at the Athens and Beijing Olympics, for services to wheelchair basketball
Matthew Maynard: former England cricket, for services to charity and sport
Gary Newbon: for services to media, sport and charity
Claire O’Hara: for services to canoeing
Tamsin Parlour: Women’s Sport Trust co-founder and chief executive, for services to gender equality in sport
Charles Reed: outgoing chair of Activity Alliance, for services to disability sport
Leroy Rosenior: vice president of Show Racism the Red Card, for services to tackling discrimination in sport
Ray Smiles: for services to football and young people in Wales
Elaine Wyllie: founder, The Daily Mile, for services to the fitness of children
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