Orla Chennaoui: The power of being authentic as a female sports journalist

This week’s guest on The Game Changers podcast is Orla Chennaoui, a multilingual TV sports presenter who currently works for Eurosport. 

As a child growing up in Northern Ireland, Chennaoui aspired to compete at the Olympic Games. 

Despite becoming an all-Ireland triple jump champion, Chennaoui never made it to the international stage. She may not have realised her dream, but instead she embarked on a “more rewarding” career.

“I used to be a track and field athlete as a kid,” she said. “It was such a huge part of my life growing up. I think only now that I’m considerably older, I realise how formative it’s been in my character, my strength and my discipline.

“I dreamt for years of representing Ireland at the Olympic Games and it never happened, but it has led me into this beautiful career. That’s actually been considerably more rewarding, so I’m very grateful for that.”

After completing a degree in Law and French at Queen’s University Belfast, Chennaoui moved to Edinburgh to do a postgraduate degree in journalism. She then worked in print and broadcast journalism across the UK, before landing a job at Sky News. 

“I just saw the job advertised for Ireland correspondent at Sky News. I was just about to get married and we lived in Edinburgh, and the job meant moving to Belfast.

“So I applied for it thinking I wouldn’t get it in a million years, and I didn’t want to think about getting it because obviously that wouldn’t be the most conventional start to married life, leaving your husband within two months. But I did get it. And that is what I did!

“It was the opportunity to work at Sky News really. It was an honour and I knew it would be incredible grounding and the best that there is really.”

Morning! I’ve put together a