Black British women in sport and the media

Beyond the songwriters, actors, comedians and other performers taking the stage in the creative arts, Black British women are commanding leading roles in the media as presenters and sporting personalities.

Alex Scott

Former England player Alex became the first Black British female presenter to host Football Focus and the first Black British female commentator in Fifa 22. She is an outspoken critic of sexism and racism in sports.

Alice Dearing

The first Black British female swimmer for Team GB, Alice competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and co-founded the Black Swimming Association. Alice has vocally disparaged the decision to disallow specialist swimming caps designed to accommodate ‘afro’ hairstyles at the Olympics.

Denise Lewis DBE

The first British Black Woman to win an Olympic heptathlon, Denise has inspired generations of Black athletes. She went on to become the first ever recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSA) in 2015.

Nicola Adams

The first woman to win an Olympic gold medal for boxing and the first openly LGBT boxer to ever to win an Olympic medal, Nicola overcame multiple stereotypes to destroy the competition before breaking new ground appearing as the first same-sex couple to dance on Strictly Come Dancing.

Tessa Sanderson

Tessa won five Commonwealth and ten UK national records in the javelin and in 1984 became the first Black woman to win an
Olympic gold medal. She went on to found the Tessa Sanderson Foundation and Academy, which aims to encourage young and disabled people to take up sports.

Image credit:

“England Women 0 New Zealand Women 1 01 06 2019-67 (47986403316)” by James Boyes from UK, reproduced under a Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 licence, via Wikimedia Commons.