We were delighted to welcome the Women’s Sports Editor of The Telegraph, Anna Kessel MBE for the finale of the Reading Festival of Sport @ The Abbey last Friday. Anna has been listed in the top 50 most influential women in UK sport and was involved in the curation of the exhibition currently on display in the Hardcastle Hall – “In Focus: Women’s Sport Through The Lens” – on exclusive loan to The Abbey from the Saatchi Gallery.
Our Sport Captains & House Captains talked to Anna about the conversations they have led in school around icons in women’s sport and the themes raised in the exhibition which culminated in students selecting their ‘hero’ images.
Carrington: Billie Jean King, “Battle of the Sexes” (1973)
Kensington: Christy Martin, Boxer (2003)
Paget: Ali Krieger & Ashlyn Harris of the Orlando Pride (2021)
Ducat: OL Reign kneel (2020)
Sport Captains: Sky Brown, Tokyo 2020 (2021)
Anna was hugely impressed by our students saying, “Women’s sport at the moment is gripped by many really challenging subjects and to see young women talking about these with such aplomb – it fills me with joy and confidence about the future of women’s sport”.
Speaking to an audience of students, parents and members of Reading sport clubs who had supported the Reading Festival Sport, Anna talked about the progression being made in women’s sport journalism saying “when The Telegraph created a women’s sport section three years ago, just 2% of sport coverage in newspapers was about women’s sport. Moving forward to the first 3 months of 2022 and ‘Women in Sport’ report 21 million people watched women’s sport – three times more than the previous year”
The exhibition will be on display in the Hardcastle Hall until Wednesday 6 July.
