Mel McLaughlin on women in sport and why the world needs the Olympics more than ever

It’s going to be the toughest Olympic Games, but Channel 7 presenter Mel McLaughlin reveals why they are more important than ever.

Despite the delays, disruptions and debate over whether they should have even gone ahead, Mel McLaughlin believes that the Tokyo Olympic Games are exactly what the world needs right now.

The versatile Channel 7 presenter has headed to the Japanese capital fresh from a stint for Optus Sport covering the recent Euro2020 football championship, and says that the public reaction she saw from one of the first major tournaments to take place since the coronavirus pandemic, has made her believe even more strongly in the healing power of sport.

“When you look at the Euros, you see the absolute joy and euphoria and what it meant,” she says. “Nothing brings together people like sport – you laugh and you cry and whenever there is an Olympics montage on TV, I will get goosebumps or cry. Just put something in slow motion and that’s me gone.

“But it’s not just the English fans and the Italian and Danish fans jumping around celebrating in the streets, all of us at home watching are riding that wave as well and it’s bringing joy. It’s what the world needs.”

Mel McLaughlin at the Unveiling of the Australian Olympic Team competition uniforms for Tokyo 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

That said, she understands that these Olympic Games – delayed by a year due to Covid – will be like no other and respects the groundswell of discontent within the host nation, which is still struggling with a fourth wave of the deadly virus. Earlier this month, crowds were banned from the Olympic venues and athletes and visiting press will have to operate under strict safety protocols, but there is still a significant percentage of the Japanese population who would prefer the event was canned entirely.

“I definitely respect that opinion,” says McLaughlin. “Everything in this whole situation divides opinion doesn’t it, and there’s no exact sciences with lockdowns and what you can and can’t do isn’t always consistent. But everyone is trying as best they can. I would never argue with someone who says they shouldn’t go ahead because I haven’t lived in Tokyo or Japan and seen what they have gone through there.”

McLaughlin is a veteran of huge overseas tournaments, having covered both Summer and Winter Olympics as well as the Commonwealth Games and football World Cups, but the Covid protocols will add an extra degree of difficulty to the Tokyo Games for her and her fellow commentators. All have been vaccinated and will have to mask up and socially distance between hotel and venue bubbles, making interactions with athletes and their families all the more challenging. She’s been deep in preparation mode – “I am a bit of a nerd with research” – making old-school, handwritten notes to cover football (beginning with tonight’s Matildas match against New Zealand), basketball, canoeing, skateboarding and “whatever else pops up” for the network.

Covid will make conditions challenging for Channel 7's commentary team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“I am very excited because the football kicks off before the opening ceremony because it needs a longer amount of time to get it all done,” she says. “So, day minus two, the Matildas play New Zealand and then Olyroos play the next day and our Aussie softballers, who have had the longest wait to get softball back in, start their campaign against the host nation and Japan loves softball. Even before the opening ceremony begins we will be hosting some really exciting stuff.”

McLaughlin is particularly pleased that a record number of women will represent Australia at this year’s games and will outnumber the men by 254 to 218. Having worked in the traditionally male-dominated area of sports journalism and presenting for more than 15 years, she says it’s high time that the faces on the track and in the studios represent a broader cross-section of society.

Mel McLaughlin has interviewed paratriathlete Nic Beveridge for her new podcast, No Turning Back.

“I have said this for a long time when I am asked about sports coverage and being a female hosting sport for years,” she says. “I don’t want to sound like I am on any high horse, I just very casually believe that you have to reflect society. I get stopped in the street by mums and grandmas and they might come up with their daughter saying ‘I just want my daughter to meet you’ and you feel very privileged for that experience. It’s purely because they want their daughters to see females represented. And it terms of athletes, that has come such a long way.

“It is absolutely indicative of 2021 and the way things are going and there are just no excuses any more. It’s not a novelty, it’s not ‘we need a token female or we need to send a female in that team or on the coverage’. It’s because society is not five men with grey hair in suits and ties.”

Bendere Oboya moved to Australia at a young age and grew up idolising Cathy Freeman. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

McLaughlin’s other passion project in the lead-up to the Games has been to launch a podcast of in-depth interviews with extraordinary members of the Olympic and the Paralympic teams. But while No Turning Back has featured household names including basketball great Patty Mills and canoeist Jess Fox, she was also keen to put the spotlight on inspirational, lesser-known figures such as Nic Beveridge, who turned his sights on triathlons after becoming a paraplegic as a teenager and Bendere Oboya who moved to Australia from Ethiopia at the age of three, grew up idolising Cathy Freeman and will now represent her adopted country on the track in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay.

MAN U’S SIR ALEX EMBRACES HIS FEARSOME REPUTATION

GAVIN WANGANEEN’S PLAN TO WIN SURVIVOR

WHY SCAR-JO FOUGHT FOR BLACK WIDOW’S AUSSIE DIRECTOR

“The only thing I resented is that they are all overachievers who made me feel like I had done nothing with my life,” McLaughlin says with a laugh. “For many athletes sport can be their salvation and something that has drawn them out of a very dark period and turned their lives around. Every individual has an amazing story but I have long thought that sport is something in life that can unify people and make them happy.”

Channel 7’s Olympics covered kicks off today with the softball and women’s football. Opening ceremony will be broadcast live on Friday at 8.50pm.