Athletes: The Other Side

#007 – Born without legs in Lebanon, and moving to England at just six months’ old, the word ‘hardship’ doesn’t feature in Ali Jawad’s vocabulary. The Briton, who during his teens was diagnosed with uncurable Chrom’s disease has always grasped life with both hands, a skill evident by his determination to secure the Para-Powerlifting Silver Medal for Team GB at the Rio 2016 Games.

Today, he is one of Britain’s most ambitious athletes, and in an era when free speech is under increasing threat, a fierce defender of the uncensored athlete voice. His passion for overhauling an athlete-light anti-doping system and advocating for athlete rights has grown no end in the past couple of years, as Ali has taken on prominent athlete committee roles at UK Anti-Doping and Global Athlete.

Ever one to defy the odds, Ali has refused to be a victim of the Covid-19 global pandemic downturn that has affected so many; seeing what is a challenging year to so many as a year of opportunity to spur him on to new ventures including an upcoming mobile App he is set to launch next year.

With a plethora of projects on the go, Ali is now targeting going one better than Rio by securing Gold Medal at the Tokyo 2020 (or is 2021?) Games next year.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:
http://bennichols.co.uk/free-speech-champion-with-ali-jawad

#008 - The GOAT (Greatest of all Time), two-time Olympic Champion and four-time World Champion in the triple jump and five-time World Athletics Diamond League Champion. What else is there you can say about Christian Taylor?

Quite a lot, as it happens. The 10-time NCAA All American recently founded and became President of his own progressive athlete union, the Athletics Association aimed at giving athletes a greater say over the future of track and field athletics. Set-up in response to World Athletics’ decision to cut Taylor’s trademark event, the triple jump, from the Diamond League Finals, Taylor’s new athletes rights movement boasts Adam Gemili, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Shelly-Ann Fraser Price and Emma Coburn amongst its ranks.

Born to Barbadian parents in Georgia, USA, Taylor is a true internationalist, and relishes the opportunity he has had to travel and live all over the world - the education of life - which led to him meeting his fiancée, the Austrian athlete, Beate Schrott.

As someone that wants to give the next generation better opportunities than he had, Taylor is mindful of the issues that today’s instant gratification culture poses on the younger generations, not least the dangers presented by social media and the impact new technologies have on getting young people to play sport.

Christian Taylor is an athlete going places in life after sport, but he’s not done yet. With the postponed Tokyo 2020 (or is Tokyo 2021) around the corner, he has one more Olympic Gold Medal in his sights.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:

http://bennichols.co.uk/the-education-of-life-with-christian-taylor

#005 – If Athletes: The Other Side was tailor made for any one athlete out there, it must be Callum Skinner. The Olympic Champion, who scored his greatest success in the Rio de Janeiro Velodrome at the 2016 Games, has clocked up more 'other side' successes in the 18 months since his retirement from the track - and by the mere age of 28 - than many athletes will manage in a lifetime.
Symbolising a new breed of athlete reformers taking a grip on Olympic sport, Callum, in his prominent role as Lead Athlete of athlete-led movement, Global Athlete, has been taking on organisations such as the International Olympic Committee with his plans for shaking up how Olympic sport should be run. With a burgeoning career in sports governance, he also sits on the athlete bodies of the British Olympic Association and UK Anti-Doping.
In this fifth outing of Athletes: The Other Side, Callum talks to host and friend Ben Nichols about this and much more, including the two new businesses he has launched this year, in the wildly different markets of coffee and cycling – and all this, despite Covid-19.
Hear more about the Scotsman's pursuits in sports marketing, sport science, business and more – and prepare to be inspired by an athlete going places.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:
http://bennichols.co.uk/the-athlete-entrepreneur-with-callum-skinner

Player, coach, broadcaster and administrator, Katrina Adams has done it all. Adams is the former President and CEO of the United States Tennis Association—the first black woman, first former player and youngest person ever to hold the position. Adams served an unprecedented two consecutive terms as USTA Chairman and President, serving the board between 2005 and 2020.

As a professional tennis player, Adams competed for 12 years on the WTA Tour, winning 20 career doubles titles and reaching a career high of World Number 8.

She has been named on Adweek magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Sports” list twice (2016 and 2017), Forbes magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Sports” list in 2017 and Ebony magazine’s “Power 100” list.

She is Vice President of the International Tennis Federation, Chair of the Billie Jean King Cup Committee, Chair of the Gender Equality in Tennis Committee and the Executive Director of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program.

She has recently published her maiden novel “Own the Arena”, which is available and out now.

In this 13th outing, Ben speaks to his Great Aunt and former Olympic Champion Fencer, Gillian Donaldson. Now 92, Donaldson (née Sheen) is a seven-time British national fencing champion, and Olympic Gold medallist in the Foil for Great Britain at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. In becoming Olympic Champion in Melbourne, Donaldson was, and remarkably remains so to this day, the only Briton ever to win Gold in Fencing at an Olympic Games.

Whilst competing at an elite level in the early days of her fencing career in England, Donaldson balanced her athletic career alongside her dental surgeon studies at University College Hospital London. Post retirement from fencing, she made the move across the Atlantic to New York with her husband, Bob, a part of the world where she has loved ever since.

Hilary Philbin, President of British Fencing has described Gillian as “an inspiration to a new generation of fencers and remains so to this day.” It is this level of praise as well as her success in competition that lead to Gillian being awarded an MBE, albeit somewhat belatedly, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2019.

Gillian has lived in New York State since the 1960’s, where she put her studies to good use by setting up a dental and orthodontic practice with her husband, and also spent time practicing dentistry on an annual basis on the island of Montserrat, a British Overseas territory in the Carribean with a population of only 5,000 people.

As a self-confessed “huge fan” of Her Majesty The Queen, she remains in regular contact with the UK, flying back for special fencing events, including the 2012 London Olympics and supporting young British fencers.