When is Team GB not Team GB?
By Michael Weadock, June 2023
One of the things that irks me when covering Olympic and Paralympic sport is the misuse of the name ‘Team GB’. It’s amazing how many times you see athletes or teams described as winning medals for Team GB outside of the Olympic Games. Even worse is when Team GB is used about athletes or teams competing in the Paralympics. This team is called Paralympics GB. I always remember Hannah Cockroft telling me how annoyed she gets when disabled athletes are described as Paralympians – even if they haven’t competed at the Paralympics. And, if you wanted us to be really accurate, shouldn’t it be Team GB and Northern Ireland? It’s complicated out there in the world of sports branding.
One thing is for certain though and that is Team GB have announced 178 athletes for the next European Games. Outside of the Olympics – in its various Summer, Winter and Youth guises – this is another opportunity for individuals to officially describe themselves as being part of Team GB. The European Games is being held in Poland in June and July 2023 and is an important event for athletes hoping to qualify for Paris. Familiar names include Olympic Champions Jade Jones, Joe Choong and Joe Clarke have all been selected. Full Team here.
The team also includes Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Charlotte Worthington. We spoke to Charlotte on the day she was named by Team GB. You might recall that Charlotte was one of the presenters of a radio series produced by Anything but Footy for talkSPORT ahead of the last Winter Olympics. It was called Cooler Runnings.
It was great to catch up with Charlotte and talk about how she has fallen back in love with her sport after trying out all the dizzying options that become available to you when you win Olympic gold. Cooler Runnings was just one of these new opportunities. But, now it’s head down for Charlotte and total focus on the next Olympic Games.
The interview also showcased how much the brand of Team GB resonates with the general public as there was much interest in the team announcement and our interview. I was able to broadcast some of the key headlines on Times Radio as soon as the full team line up was known and the interview with Charlotte was also broadcast on radio station XS Manchester which coincidentally is also the radio station Charlotte’s mum likes to listen to!
Commercial radio continues to reach huge numbers of people in this country and it is certainly one of our unique selling points, here at Anything but Footy, that we have great contacts with so many radio stations who trust us to provide content for their listeners. And, often this is done in conjunction with a podcast giving our customers a double helping of coverage.
