• pregnancy & baby
• parenting
• horoscopes
• health
• beauty
• food & drink
• diet & fitness
• more ivillage
  • • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Home & Garden
    • Relationships
    • Work & Money
    • Shopping
  • • Competitions
    • Dating
    • Quizzes
    • Newsletters
    • Kalimocho.co.uk
    • Wii Fit Plus
  • 

Gail Emms' sporting world

World Championship winner and GB Olympic hero Gail Emms spoke exclusively to iVillage.co.uk's Alex Hazell about badminton, marathons and mentoring stars of the future

That was a foreign dialing tone. Where are you?

Gail Emms: I'm currently in Denmark playing for a Danish team. I'm not playing professionally any more, but they asked me when I finished, and my old club didn't want me any more, so I agreed. I still enjoy it, it's the team thing and it's a gorgeous sunny day here in Copenhagen.

Are you also involved in some mentoring schemes?

Gail Emms: Yes, I'm involved in two schemes. The first is Youth Sport Trust through the Sky Sports Living for Sport programme. It uses sport to motivate and inspire young people who are at risk of opting out of school life. I talk about my experiences and try to motivate them.

The second scheme is as a mentor for Badminton England. I have two girls to mentor, Jenny Wallwork and Gaby White. I'm helping them to prepare for 2012. They don't need coaching, they are more talented than I ever was at that age, but they need guidance and time to mature. They will get some amazing opportunities and I'm just there to help.

How did you become involved?

Gail Emms: A lot of people assumed I would go into coaching, but it wasn't something that I was interested in. I still wanted to be involved and I wanted to help. I found I identified with Gaby and Jenny. I asked Sport England about them and became their mentor that way.

Why is mentoring so important?

Gail Emms: When you're between the ages of 14 and 18 is when it's crucial to get support. I had various family problems and I had a lot of avenues to choose from. I didn't know what to do, to concentrate on hockey or badminton. At my school it was very unusual to have someone competing at England level and studying and sometimes I just used to cry because I felt so overwhelmed. It's so important to surround yourself with the right people and that's what I did in Beijing. We were a very strong team and we were in the best possible shape.

READ MORE:  1 |  2 |  3 | next printer friendly send to a friend