Women's Sport Week 2016 - #MyInspirationalWomen
Tuesday 4 October 2016 20:03, UK
Sky Sports reporter Emma Paton blogs on Women's Sport Week 2016 and her role as a roving reporter chasing some of sport's most inspiring women.
Women's Sport Week is an initiative aimed at getting more women and girls involved in sport and raising the profile of our female athletes.
So in my role as a Sky Sports reporter I was challenged to track down three completely different, but completely, inspiring women.....in a 24-hour period.
First stop was Lord's, home of English cricket, to meet the very normal Hannah MacLeod, part of the GB hockey team that wowed us in Rio this summer.
She's 32, has a PHD and is now the owner of an Olympic gold medal and chatting to Hannah inspired me.
It still sounds mad. I was eight when I watched the Barcelona Olympics on TV, watching Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell win gold, and I remember saying to my gran 'that's what I want to do'.<p>I was such a shy child, it seems bizarre, but it was that moment that I put that dream up there.
Next up was a trip to Cobham in Surrey, Chelsea's training ground.
Emma Hayes led Chelsea Ladies to their first league title last season - and winning the FA Cup made it an incredible double. With the girls set for their first game at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, it's been a meteoric rise for the women's game..and for Emma.
Hearing her journey from the United States back to England was amazing…
I had one negative experience when getting my B license at 18 - that was my catalyst to go to America because there were a lot of sexist comments and remarks.<p>My dad said 'You need to be made of tougher stuff if you're going to survive in football'. So most of my professional years were in the States.<p>Through my 20s I was in a place where there was gender equality and great opportunities.<p>So I don't have the stories of lack of opportunities or a glass ceiling or sexism.<p>I'm now home in London, with a fabulous club and living out every dream that I worked most of my professional career for.
My journey ended up back in west London at Sky Studios. Awaiting me was a queen of two wheels, Becky James. She won silver medals in the Olympic velodrome in the sprint and keirin events.
How she reached those heights is just remarkable. Like Hannah, Becky knew her dreams but had her obstacles. Three years ago she was a double world champion, but a cancer scare and career-threatening knee and shoulder injuries left her cycling dream in tatters.
She told me: "It took so long to get back from injury. I was a year out from the Olympics and was training once a day. A year before Rio, I could never have imagined that I'd break the Olympic record.
"There were so many tears along the way. When I was doing my intensive rehab programme I would go home and cry and I said 'I can't do this anymore'. I had so much support from my family and British Cycling. If people hadn't helped me through those hard times I would never have made it to the Olympics."
