Loughborough Alumna, Alice Reeves-Turner, is part of the team at Sky Sports that have launched Sky Sports’ new series Real Talk. As assistant producer, Reeves-Turner travelled across the country, assisting with interviewing athletes on a range of topics that are usually ignored by the media.
This project was in the works for a long time and Reeves-Turner describes it as a career highlight. She describes how the series “explores and celebrates health and well-being topics experienced by athletes.
“The mission of the series is to reduce the stigma and educate on topics often overlooked by the media.”
The first episode, released Tuesday 19th March, focuses on the topic of grief – with athletes sharing their personal experience on losing a loved one and how they navigated this. The episode is very emotional, but essential to breaking down the stigma of athletes’ mental health.
Other topics that this series will be discussing are OCD, pelvic floor, athlete safety, retirement and athlete motherhood. Real Talk is doing exactly what it says, and is hopefully the start of athletes being able to speak more openly about the issues that affect them. It is also evident that there has been a real consideration to women athletes in the development of this series, with athlete motherhood having its own episode.
You can find the interviews on SSN channel, Sky Sports social and digital platforms, and the full interviews on Sky Sports YouTube. Podcast episodes can be found on Spotify and Apply Podcasts.
