Commentating is my main career, it’s not playing badminton
Today Gillian Margaret Clark a.k.a. Gill Clark is known as the “voice of badminton” and she has been the lead commentator for BWF for the past 25 years. Clark is also a former world No. 1 and a six-time Commonwealth Games gold medal winner.
The biggest obstacle she overcame as a commentator –
At the beginning of her career as a lead commentator, there were two main obstacles she faced.
The first was being a woman. In a recent episode of Badminton Unlimited, as she puts it, at the time she started, there were other female broadcasters but most of them were in front of the camera. So there were questions raised at her being the lead commentator who would be behind the camera.
She remembered that it was a hurdle to become a lead commentator, which was regarded as a male-dominated profession.
Second is her previous career as a professional badminton player. Today, Clark has made the commentators’ box her second home, but at the beginning, there were serious doubts from others whether she would be able to perform the task of a lead commentator.
Clark: “Secondly, I think that whilst I personally believed that my background as a former world No. 1 badminton player is an advantage, I think some of the decision-makers about who does the commentary believed because of my sporting background that I cannot be a professional broadcaster. And therefore, I shouldn’t be the lead commentator.
But it is interesting because I competed as a professional player for 15 years; I have been a broadcaster for 25 years. Broadcasting is my main career.
It’s not playing badminton.”