The Game Changers

Donna Fraser is a 4-time Olympian who now specialises in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in sport. 

Donna won medals at 400m at World and European Championships and the Commonwealth Games and reluctantly retired from Athletics in 2009 after a breast cancer diagnosis.

She went on to become UK Athletics’ first Equality, Diversity and Engagement Lead, working to champion ethnically diverse communities and inclusivity at all levels of the sport.  Following a role as D&I Lead for Birmingham 2022, Donna was appointed as the first director of equality, diversity and inclusion for the Professional Cricketers' Association.

An incredible sportswoman who’s gone on to deliver such powerful work around inclusion it’s little wonder that Donna was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List.

We talk about Donna’s incredible career & she reflects on being part of one of the greatest events in Olympic history, when Cathy Freeman won the 400m in Sydney 2000, why talking openly about her breast cancer diagnosis was so important and what more needs to change to ensure sport is inclusive for all. 

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Rimla Akhtar, Wendy Taylor, Tess Howard and Holly Bradshaw join Sue Anstiss to consider the impact of sports kit for women and girls. 

There's been much talk about women's sports kit recently, from issues around Wimbledon whites, girls forced to wear skorts for PE and women not allowed to wear the hijab to play sport to extremes of female athletes objectified and sexualised with revealing clothing, high cut leotards & bikini bottoms.

This panel of game changers addresses some of the challenges and provides practical recommendations that will enable more choice for more women.
Our four game changing guests were: 

• Rimla Akhtar – former Chair of the Muslim Women’s Sport Foundation and the first Muslim woman to sit on the Football Association Council. Rimla was awarded an OBE for her contribution to equality and diversity in sport
• Wendy Taylor - Lead on girls work at the Youth Sport Trust including the hugely successful ‘Girls Active’ initiative which is delivered in partnership with This Girl Can and Women in Sport 
• Tess Howard - a GB Hockey player who’s team won gold at the Commonwealth Games this summer. Tess is a real sports Kit activist, helping to change the guidelines to make sports policy more inclusive
• Holly Bradshaw – an Olympian who’s been very publicly outspoken about the challenges facing female track and field athletes.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Sarah Hunter is a rugby legend. The world's most capped female rugby player and most capped England player (male or female).  Sarah captains England into a World Cup Final this weekend. A World Cup winner in 2014, Sarah has played in four World Cup Finals, and captained England to Six Nations Grand Slam wins and a record breaking run of over 30 consecutive wins.

Sarah took over the England captaincy in 2015 and in 2016 was name England’s Player of the Year by the Rugby Players’ Association and World Rugby’s Player of the Year and awarded an MBE for her Services to Rugby. Along with discussing how she's managed to keep playing and winning for so many years (Sarah is now 37), we explore why rugby is such a powerful sport for challenging traditional societal perceptions of femininity and how the women's game is leading the growth of the sport globally. 

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Hannah Cockcroft is one of Britain’s most successful para-athletes who burst onto the world stage in 2010, breaking 9 wheelchair sprinting world records. She went on to win two golds at the London Paralympic games, with three more at the 2016 games in Rio and two in Tokyo 2021.

In the summer of 2022, Hannah won gold in the T33/34 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, setting a new Games record and completing the set – with Gold medals at Every. Major. Athletics. Championships.

It’s no wonder that Hannah was awarded an MBE in 2013 for her services to athletics which was followed by an OBE in last year New Year’s Honours. Hannah talks candidly about the loneliness she experienced as a disabled child with no visible role models and how that's now changing, how it felt to discover wheelchair racing, the challenges of classification in para sport and how it felt be beaten for the first time in 7 years. It's a fascinating conversation with a true trailblazer in women's sport.

During the conversation we reference an ITV clip with a young Hannah and her first Barbie in a wheelchair, you can find it here.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Fantastic news for all fans of women’s sport and equality - The Game Changers podcast returns on November 1st with an incredible line up of guests and the one hundredth episode featuring one of the most influential women in sport, Sally Munday. The new series also includes two panel discussions considering women’s sport clothing and racial equality in women’s sport.

Once again, this season of the award-winning podcast is backed by Sport England through a National Lottery award.

The Game Changers podcast features candid interviews with trailblazing women in sport who are knocking down barriers and challenging the status quo for women and girls across society. Along with discussing their careers, what drives them and how they’ve dealt with tough challenges, each episode also addresses key issues for equality in sport and beyond.

This season’s inspiring line-up includes: 

Hannah Cockcroft – one of Britain’s most successful para-athletes who has won Gold medals at every major championship including Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games

Sarah Hunter – England’s most capped Rugby Player, and a World Cup winner who captained her country to a record-breaking number of consecutive wins

Donna Fraser – a four-time Olympian, who specialises in in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in sport and has recently joined the Professional Cricketers Association

Emma Mitchell – a former World Cup winning international rugby player, who works as a Performance Lifestyle Coach at the English Institute of Sport

Rachel Pavlou - Women's Development Manager at the Football Association who’s been instrumental in the development of the women's game for more than 25 years

In this series we’ll also include panel discussions considering: 

Women’s sports clothing with Rimla Akhtar, Wendy Taylor, Tess Howard, Holly Bradshaw

Racial inclusion in women’s sport including, Garnet Mackinder, Anne Wafula Strike and Shruti Saujani

Finally, we’ll be celebrating our 100th episode by returning to talk to a very special guest who featured in our first series and is considered by many to be the most influential woman in British Sport – Sally Munday, the CEO of UK Sport. 

The Game Changers is hosted by Sue Anstiss MBE, author of ‘Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport’, CEO of Fearless Women and co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective. 

Previous game changing guests include Jess Ennis-Hill, Gabby Logan, Katherine Grainger, Lucy Bronze, Laura Woods, Judy Murray, Sarah Storey, Denise Lewis, Shaunagh Brown, Kelly Smith, Clare Balding, Kate Richardson-Walsh, Lizzie Deignan, Emma Hayes, Chrissie Wellington, Maggie Murphy, Sue Campbell and Tanni Grey-Thompson, along with male allies including Ian Wright and Ugo Monye.

The Game Changers is available free of charge across all podcast platforms including iTunes, Spotify and Google or you find out about all the guests from this and the previous series and listen here - https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers. 

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Jodie Cunningham is one of Rugby League’s most recognisable stars playing for St Helens and England. 

She was named  Woman of Steel for her incredible form during Saint's treble winning season in 2021, and, having represented England in two world cups, she's now working towards her third as England compete in the Rugby League world cup on home soil this autumn.

A huge advocate for women's sport and equality in the UK, Jodie now works full-time at the RFL as a National Women's and Girls’ Development Manager and is also an ambassador for the Rugby League World Cup.

We explore why physical sports like Rugby League are becoming so appealing to young women, the impact of the Super League and TV coverage on the growth of the women’s game and what it will take for the sport to finally become professional so that the women can be paid to play in the same way as their male colleagues. 

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

 Fiona Morgan is SailGP’s director of purpose and impact, who's driving the championship’s commitment to a better future and a better sport.

She's been instrumental in creating the pioneering ‘impact league’, Sail GP’s world first initiative to make sustainability essential to the fabric of sport.

With nearly 20 years’ experience in the sports industry, Fi has an exceptional track record of shaping social impact strategy and delivering campaigns for some of the world's most high-profile sports brands. 
 She's worked with a host of global athletes throughout her career from tennis legend Chris Everet, through to David Beckham and Bradley Wiggins, and was also responsible for developing the commercial strategy for the London 2012 Olympic games. 

Fi believes deeply in the power of sport to drive wellbeing and to ensure a better world.

We explore sustainability developments at SailGP and they are also impacting other sports and what’s being done for gender equality in sailing and more widely across sports.

Fi talks openly about her own career in commercial sports and how she finds balance as a senior woman who’s also raising a young family along, with sitting on various boards including The Hundred’s Manchester Originals.

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Executive Producer – Sam Walker
Host – Sue Anstiss @sueanstiss 

A Fearless Women production

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Sophie Carrigill is a British wheelchair basketball player who represented and co-captained Great Britain at the World and European Championships and at the Paralympic games.

She’s won world and European silver medals and reached the Paralympic semi-finals in a first for Great Britain.
 
 Sophie’s just returned from playing wheelchair basketball professionally in Italy and continues to explore her passions beyond the court as she advocates for disabled women in sport and beyond.

Sophie talks candidly about the accident that caused her disability and the part sport has played in helping her to build her independence and strength. We explore the powerful inspiration of watching parasport at London 2012 and how she’s since had to overcome many setbacks in her sporting journey. She talks about playing professionally on a mixed team in Italy and her hopes for the future including a Paralympic medal at Paris 2024. 

We also discuss how using social media has helped her to find her voice and advocate for others, as well as attracting more commercial partnerships and new opportunities.

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Radha Balani is a much-respected industry professional who's having a huge impact in the sport for development arena.

Radha started her career in the university sports sector before working for leading organisations in sport, including the Football Foundation, Women in Sport, London Sport, and now as co-Managing Director of Think Beyond.

It’s a fascinating conversation as we explore the world of Sport for Development and how sport can be used intentionally to transform the lives of women and girls. 

We explore Radha’s diverse career in sports leadership, and how organisations like BUCS, the Football Foundation and Women in Sport are driving change for grassroots participation. 

Radha highlights the growing trend for athletes to use their profile to drive social change whilst still competing and we also touch on the need to recognise the mental health issues facing many elite athletes today.  

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Ali Donnelly is Executive Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications at Sport England.  

She is a former Senior Civil Servant, who worked at Downing Street where she was the Prime Minister's Deputy Official Spokesperson and the Head of News.

Ali was previously Head of Communications at Premiership Rugby club Wasps and has also worked in media and public affairs roles at the BBC have started her career as a journalist at the Evening Echo newspaper in Ireland. 

A passionate women's rugby fan and campaigner Ali also runs the award-winning website Scrumqueens and is Director of Women's Rugby at Teddington and a member of the RFU’s Rugby Growth Committee. Her new book is called:  'Scrum Queens - The History of Women's Rugby'. 

Along with exploring Ali’s career pathway in sport and business, we review the current state of play for women’s rugby and the potential with 2025 World Cup on the horizon in England. What more needs to change for equality in women’s sport and to ensure young women don’t stop being active in their teenage age years?

Thanks to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production