Gail Emms: ‘I lost my identity in badminton. I lost me’

An Olympic medallist and former world champion, Emms has struggled to adapt after her sporting career and now wants to help others make that transition

“I’ve written a comedy about this actually,” Gail Emms says with a wry smile as she explains how a former professional feels when she is spat out by the sports industry and a proud career fades away into oblivion. “It’s very British because they’ll say: ‘Well done, here’s a pat on the back. Now fuck off and get a proper job.’ They need to concentrate on the next one. You’ve done your job, so off you go.”

Emms is chatty and cheerful in a sports club in Milton Keynes; but the themes of this interview often seem as bleak as they are salutary. The brutal way in which UK Sport cuts funding is matched by the problems Emms has faced as a retired Olympic medal-winner. She won her silver medal in badminton at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, playing in the mixed doubles with Nathan Robertson, at a time when British sporting success was a rarity. Emms and Robertson were also world champions in 2006 and she won two Commonwealth Games golds and a matching pair of European titles. Eleven years later she pauses when asked if she now wishes she had never been a professional sportswoman. “Yeah, I questioned that a lot,” Emms says. “This year especially.’”

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2xwAp6C

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