Once again, British sports journalism and photography talent will be celebrated on the global industry’s biggest stage; Issy Ronald, who is in the “Top 3” in the Young Reporters Writing category, talks us through her AIPS Awards entry and gives advice for others who hope to emulate her…
Issy Ronald is one of seven entrants from the U.K. who are shortlisted for the final stage of this year’s prestigious AIPS Sport Media Awards.
Ronald is a freelance digital producer who has made the “Top 3” in the Young Reporters Writing category, which is open to professionals under the age of 30.
Her submitted article was a feature for CNN Sport in August 2024, titled ‘For even the most successful Olympians, life after the Games can be like ‘going down that cliff’’.
The article included exclusive interviews with retired speed skater Apolo Ohno, who is Team USA’s most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, and the four-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Alison Schmitt.
Ronald is hoping to emulate her CNN Sport colleague Jack Bantock, who won the category last year. The winners will be unveiled at a ceremony in Rabat, Morocco, next week.
The other entries listed as being from the U.K. on the AIPS Awards’ “Top 3” shortlists are:
AUDIO: Ashish Sharma, ‘Football’s Financial Fairplay’ – BBC; Andrew Todos, ‘Play On! How football returned to war-torn Ukraine!’ – talkSPORT
PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO: Edward Whitaker, Global Horse Racing – Racing Post
PHOTOGRAPHY SPORT ACTION: Mike Egerton, Simone Biles – PA Media
WRITING BEST COLOUR PIECE: Adam Leventhal, ‘Christian Atsu – One year on from the search to find him. Through the eyes of those closest to him.’ – The Athletic; Steve Menary, ‘Greek Tragedy’ – Josimar
The SJA extends its congratulations to all seven finalists.
We caught up with Issy to learn more…
Hi Issy, and congrats from all of us at the SJA! How does it feel to be recognised at a global sports media awards event?
Issy: It feels really exciting! There are so many amazing sports journalists around the world and I never expected to get this far in the competition at all.
There are also so many great stories out there that people are writing so it’s very cool indeed to be recognised among them.
Take us ‘behind the scenes’ on your shortlisted article – how did the idea come about and what was the process?
With this specific article, it came up before the Olympics. I remembered reading about Adam Peaty and Charlotte Worthington, who had both spoken about how their whole lives had been building up towards winning an Olympic gold medal. They explained how the emotions after that were more complicated than you would expect.
Gold medals represent so much, both inside and outside of sport, and especially with the Olympics, there’s such a big build-up to it.
There are always these incredible stories about how people have got themselves to the Games, even more so if they win a medal. I thought it would be interesting to look at what happens after that, when the spotlight goes away. It seemed like an area that would be good to explore.
I remembered Alison Schmitt winning her gold medals in London 2012, and I’d heard of Apolo Ohno. They aren’t the only athletes to have spoken out about this topic – more and more are, including Michael Phelps who produced a documentary on it [‘The Weight of Gold’, 2020].
Athletes’ mental health has certainly been getting greater focus in the last few years and both Alison and Apolo were generous and open with me. It was really great to chat with them.
Part of the topic touches on how the media builds up successful Olympians in the public imagination, and the impact that can have. What should sports journalists take away from that?
I guess it’s about remembering that they are people as well as athletes.
They achieve these feats that none of us can really imagine achieving, and sometimes it can be easy within the media and within the public imagination to forget that they’re still just people, with everything that comes with that.
CNN Sport has a great track record at the AIPS Awards. Why do you think that is?
Yes, Jack Bantock won in this same category last year, which was incredible.
I think it shows what kind of an environment there is in the team. It’s very collaborative and people are always willing to help you shape an idea or find an angle that maybe goes beyond just the ‘straight’ news line.
You can dig deeper into themes which are happening in the world of sport and that means producing really great stories, getting exclusives and unusual interviews as well. It’s a very welcoming place to be.
What’s been your career path so far in the industry? We know cycling is one of your specialisms…
Yes that’s right, I’ve always loved cycling!
One of the great things about sports journalism is that you get the opportunity to cover everything that goes on around the sporting event, and how that touches on themes within society as well as sport.
I think cycling, just by virtue of how it’s travelling all the time and how it’s so much about the history of a place, as well as the history of the event, encapsulates that.
I started in the cycling media industry, writing an e-mail to the editor of a magazine that I liked and he gave me an internship. I didn’t have much experience at all at that point – I hadn’t been to journalism school, so it was really learning on the job.
He taught me everything about how to structure an article, how to prepare for an interview, how to find those angles that people want to read. Then I freelanced in cycling media for a bit before getting an internship at CNN, which is where I mostly work now.
There are some great journalists on the team. Seeing how they work and learning how they cover things has been really helpful as well.
What would be your message for other young journalists who might read this and want to follow in your footsteps?
My advice would be to always back yourself – write those letters to people who you think you might want to work with.
There’s always that saying when you’re breaking into an industry, that ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ – and if you don’t know anyone yet, you’ve got to get to know them.
So find those people and then read, listen and watch as much as possible. If you want to be an audio or video journalist, you learn so much from seeing how other people do things.
Ask yourself why you like certain things and then try to do the same in your own reporting as well. Learn from other content that’s out there as much as possible and really immerse yourself in that world.
Thanks Issy for the Q&A… we wish you all the best for awards night!
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