| Gabby Logan | |
|---|---|
Gabby Logan in September 2005 |
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| Born | Gabrielle Nicole Yorath 24 April 1973 Leeds, England[1] |
| Education | Cardinal Heenan Roman Catholic High School Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College |
| Occupation | BBC TV presenter |
| Employer | BBC Sport/ Channel 5 |
| Known for | TV presenter |
| Home town | Leeds, England |
| Spouse | Kenny Logan |
| Children | Reuben, Lois |
| Parents | Terry Yorath (father) Christine Yorath (mother) |
| Notes | |
Gabby Logan (born 24 April 1973) is a [2] television presenter and radio presenter, as well as a former Wales international gymnast. She currently hosts programmes for BBC Sport, mainly focusing on football.
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Born Gabrielle Nicole Yorath in Leeds, Logan is the daughter of former Welsh international footballer and manager Terry Yorath. Due to her father's career, Logan had to move around much in her youth, as her father played for a number of British teams and Canadian side Vancouver Whitecaps.[3] After attending Bishop Ullathorne RC School in Coventry, Cardinal Heenan High School, and Notre Dame Sixth Form College in Leeds, Logan's university education was at the College of St. Hild and St. Bede, Durham University, where she read Law.
Logan played netball for the school and at university, competed at high jump, but the peak of her sporting career was when she gained eighth place in rhythmic gymnastics representing Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.[4] She had to retire from gymnastics aged 17 due to sciatica.
Logan became interested in football during her regular attendance of her father's matches, to which her mother went out of a 'sense of duty'.[3] On 11 May 1985, she was in the crowd at Valley Parade when the Bradford City stadium fire happened. She, along with her brother and sister, had left the stand only moments before the fire took hold and watched the disaster taking place.[5]
She runs and plays golf. She supports Newcastle United[6] stretching back to her time at Durham University, where her then boyfriend was a childhood fan. She remembers her first match as Newcastle's 1-0 Premier League victory over Everton on 25 August 1993[7] and made visits by air or rail to St. James' Park throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,[6] including Newcastle's 5-0 win over Manchester United on 20 October 1996. [7]
After university she presented on Metro Radio in Newcastle, from where she was offered a job as a presenter on Sky Sports in 1996, working there until 1998, when she began working at ITV.[3]
Logan's career came to notice when she fronted On the Ball for ITV. Logan was one of a small number of female sports presenters to have made the transition to terrestrial television.[3] After ITV lost the terrestrial rights to the FA Premier League, she has presented ITV's UEFA Champions League football coverage, including the 2005 and 2006 finals, between Milan and Liverpool, and Arsenal and Barcelona, respectively. She has also presented other programmes including ITV's 2005 Super Bowl coverage. In one episode as a guest on BBC1's They Think It's All Over she asked if she could take part in the Feel The Sportsman round as an all girls team, donning the blindfold along with Jo Brand instead of regular captain David Gower. Pauline McLynn guesting on Gary Lineker's team also got offered and accepted a rare chance for the guests to take up the blindfold challenge.
Logan took part in the celebrity version of Stars in Their Eyes as Sharleen Spiteri of Texas - although she lost to Debra Stephenson, Spiteri sent flowers to congratulate her on her performance.[8] She writes regularly for The Times newspaper, and has also done a photo shoot for men's magazine GQ.
After the birth of her twins and the return of Steve Rider to ITV, she was given a co-host role. This included ITV's coverage of the 2006 World Cup, on which she later commented: "I interviewed David Beckham but I didn't see a single game. It dented my confidence and made me question my abilities. If you've got ambition and you want to do well, it's obviously disappointing."[9]
In August 2006 when Champions League returned to ITV, Logan was not present and it was announced that Rider would front with Jim Rosenthal as deputy. Under the ITV team section of the ITV football website, it announced that Logan would front ITV's UEFA Cup coverage.
In September 2006, it was announced that ITV had banned Logan from competing in the fourth series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, which began on 7 October 2006 (though she did appear in the studio audience at least once). She was told that she would appear in rival ITV series Dancing on Ice, which returned on 13 January 2007, but refused to take part.[10]
In October 2006, the Daily Mirror reported that the BBC was interested in signing her up for their sports coverage, following her fall from favour at ITV. On 19 December 2006 it was announced that Logan had quit ITV, in favour of a move to the BBC in a three year deal.[11]
Logan now fronts Inside Sport a sports news show, and covers live sport events. She has also worked on BBC Radio 5 Live, where she presented a lunchtime show from January 2010. Her previous Sunday morning was taken over by Kate Silverton. Logan started presenting on BBC Sport on 27 January 2007, presenting the FA Cup fourth round tie between Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers.
Logan also made a few appearances on Match of the Day, covering for Gary Lineker. However contrary to popular belief, she was not the first female presenter of Match Of The Day, BBC's flagship football show. This honour went to Celina Hinchcliffe in 2005. However Hinchcliffe is now predominantly seen presenting the sports news during BBC News bulletins, having presented the BBC's women's football coverage for a few years.
Following her switch to the BBC in 2007, she agreed to take part in Strictly Come Dancing in the same year. One of her opponents for the competition was her husband, Kenny Logan. Kenny was paired with professional dancer Ola Jordan and Gabby was partnered with Ola's husband James Jordan. Gabby was voted out of the series in week 4.[12]
In Summer 2008 she was one of the anchor presenters for the BBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She was the main presenter for the evening primetime coverage.
In 2009 she took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about her Welsh family history.
Gabby and her husband Kenny Logan are currently co-presidents of the children's charity Sparks[13]
On 12 April 2009 she presented the BBC Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of St John's Catholic School for the Deaf of which she is a patron.[14][15]
In July 2009, it was announced that Logan would be the new host of Score results service, including Final Score, from the beginning of the 2009/10 football season, after the departure of Ray Stubbs to ESPN's Premier League coverage.
On October 20, 2009, it was announced that Logan would be leaving her Sunday morning slot on Radio Five Live, and would be starting a new weekday show on the station from 12.00 to 2.00 pm (Mon - Fri) which began on January 11, 2010.
In light of the move of BBC Radio Five Live north from London to MediaCityUK in Salford, Manchester, Logan left her weekday show in April 2011 due to other BBC work and family commitments, replaced by Shelagh Fogarty.
While still presenting the sports results show for BBC1 on Saturday, in June 2011 Logan joined Channel 5 to present a new discussion and magazine show following on from The Wright Stuff at 11:10am each weekday. The programme runs in a commercial hour and consists of 4 parts. Every day Gabby is joined by a mixture of celebrity and real-life guests discussing a wide variety of subjects.
In December 2011, Logan was announced as part of the BBC television presenter line-up for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She is currently scheduled to present the post-BBC News at Ten to midnight daily round-up and review show from the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.[16]
Logan married the former Scotland international rugby union player Kenny Logan on 19 July 2001. She has said that meeting her husband was a motivation for beginning to exercise regularly again.[17]
After undergoing IVF treatment, on 28 July 2005 Logan gave birth to twins - Reuben McKerrow, born at 11.40pm; Lois Maya, born 12 minutes later. McKerrow is the maiden name of Kenny's mother Elizabeth.
In 1992 her 15-year-old brother Daniel collapsed as he was enjoying a kick-about with his father in the back garden of their home. Daniel, who had just signed schoolboy forms with Yorath's former club Leeds United, died in his helpless father's arms from a heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.[17] Logan has actively appealed for the Daniel Yorath Appeal, which raises funds for the treatment and detection of the condition.[18]
Her brother Jordan Yorath (born 1986) played football for England Universities in 2008 whilst in the final year of his planning and development surveying degree at Northumbria University. Jordan was previously at Sheffield Wednesday and Halifax town as a young professional and is currently registered to Wakefield FC. Logan also has a sister, Louise (born 1974), who is a performer in the Cirque Du Soleil's Zumanity, the resident cabaret-style show at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.[19]
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