Seema Jaswal: ‘We’re seeing more women in sports media, but there’s still a long way to go’

The Premier League presenter understands that as a woman with Asian heritage, she is both a pioneer and role model in a male-dominated industry

The idea that there might be barriers in her way did not occur to Seema Jaswal until, soon after deciding that a role in front of the cameras was the ideal way forward, a chance conversation arose with her family’s neighbour. “She’s an older lady, a lovely person who had seen me grow up,” she says. “When I told her I wanted to be on television she said: ‘Seema, things like that don’t happen to people like us.’ And I remember thinking: ‘But why?’”

Jaswal has spent the subsequent decade proving that statement wrong. She is a familiar face to millions, hosting Premier League Productions’ worldwide coverage of the English top flight and covering a range of sports across most of the major domestic channels. She was a roving reporter for ITV’s World Cup team in Russia, vox-popping around host cities at one stroke and mediating pundits’ pitchside discussions the next; football is her focus and she is acutely aware that, as a woman of Asian heritage in her early 30s, she is beating a path that has not always been open to those before her.

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from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2DA4MkN