BBC Winter Olympics presenters 2022: Jeanette Kwakye, Hazel Irvine, JJ Chalmers form Beijing Games TV coverage

Ayo Akinwolere, Jeanette Kwakye, Hazel Irvine, JJ Chalmers, Clare Balding and Aimee Fuller lead the BBC’s presenting team for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

As Team GB make their final preparations ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, former Olympians and athletes will form part of the BBC’s team of presenters.

The BBC is offering over 300 hours of coverage from Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou on multiple platforms and will bring fans in Great Britain all of the latest from the likes of Eve Muirhead, Laura Deas and Gus Kenworthy.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The presenters will also be joined in the studio by former Winter Olympians as they analyse and relay as much of the action as possible.

The BBC has recently revealed its new virtual reality studio in MediaCity, Salford where it shall hope to transport fans to the ice rinks and slopes on the other side of the world.

Clare Balding, one of the BBC’s senior sports presenters, will bring a daily highlights show on BBC Two, while the live coverage will be split between the likes of JJ Chalmers, Hazel Irvine, Jeanette Kwakye and Ayo Akinwolere.

Here is all you need to know about who will be presenting during the Winter Olympics on BBC…

JJ Chalmers

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

John-James Chalmers is a former Royal Marine and Invictus Games medallist. The 35-year-old was injured during a bomb blast in Afghanistan, 2011, and suffered facial injruies, lost two of his fingers and had his right elbow disintegrated.

JJ Chalmers wins gold at the Invictus Games, 2014JJ Chalmers wins gold at the Invictus Games, 2014
JJ Chalmers wins gold at the Invictus Games, 2014

Lance Corporal Chalmers then went on to become a medal winner in the non-amputee cycling for Britain at the Invictus Games in 2014.

He won the gold medal for the Men’s IRecB1 Recumbent Circuit Race and had earlier won a bronze medal for the 1-mile time trial. Chalmers also won bronze in the 4x100m mixed relay race.

Starting out in media at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha as well as the 2016 Invictus Games, Chalmers has gone on to present several sports segments with the BBC, including the World Athletics Indoor Championships, the 2018 Winter Paralympics and the Commonwealth Games.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Chalmers was a part of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games presenting team in Tokyo.

Hazel Irvine

Fellow Scot, Hazel Irvine will also be a member of the Winter Olympics BBC presenting team. The 56-year-old started out competing in golf, netball and athletics at university level before moving on to work for Scottish Television in the late 80s.

After joining the BBC in 1990, Irvine has worked on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene programme, BBC Scotland’s coverage of Children in Need and in 1995 she introduced coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The former St Andrew’s student has presented every at Summer Olympics since Barcelona in 1992, five Winter Olympics and four FIFA World Cups.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Fans may know her commentary for snooker, Athletics and Golf as well as the Olympic coverage. Irvine also presented the 2019 Netball World Cup from Liverpool for the BBC.

This will not be the first time that Hazel Irvine has covered sport from Beijing as the presenter was part of the team who commentated at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics.

Jeanette Kwakye

Former sprint Jeanette Kwakye will be another making a presenting appearance during the Winter Olympics.

The 38-year-old from London is a former Olympian having featured at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where she became the first British woman to reach the 100m final since Heather Oakes in 1984.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Kwakye finished in sixth position and also clocked her personal best time of 11.14 seconds.

Kwakye featured at the 2008 Summer OlympicsKwakye featured at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Kwakye featured at the 2008 Summer Olympics

After Beijing, Kwakye failed to perform to the same extent she had been due to injuries. She reached the semi-final of the Women’s 100m at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea but failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics due to injury.

After her retirement from the track in 2014, Kwayke became a qualified journalist and worked for BBC Radio London’s sports team.

She is a regular host of the BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast and is the BBC’s athletics trackside reporter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At 1pm each Saturday, Kwakye presents The Women’s Sport Show on BBC Radio London.

This will be the former sprinter’s first Winter Olympics.

Ayo Akinwolere

Ayo Akinwolere, formerly known as Andy, is a former Blue Peter presenter and has set two world records for swimming.

Akinwolere swam five miles across the Palau Trench, an 8,000-metre abyss in the Pacific Ocean and became the first person to swim across the deepest part of the trench. He now holds the record for the deepest location for an open water swim.

The 39-year-old created THE SWIM CHALLENGE in 2015, which was a project looking to prove that people of colour can swim. He himself is one of only four people of colour to hold a swimming world record.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

As a broadcaster, he has worked across various British TV channels and interviewed some of the world’s greatest sport stars, including Usain Bolt, Lewis Hamilton and Jessica Ennis.

In addition to his broadcasting, Akinwolere also writes for The Daily Telegraph, Huffington Post and BBC Sport.

Who else will feature in the BBC Studio?

Skiers Graham Bell and Chemmy Alcott alongside British snowboarder Aimee Fuller will also be part of the action.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Olympic gold medallist, Robin cousins, ex-world champion speed skater Wilf O’Reilly, Olympic Bobsleigh medallist John Jackson, curling gold medallist Rhona Howie and former Curling world champion Jackie Lockhart will feature for the BBC across the two week period as all offer their expertise in analyse at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Go to our article on where to watch the Winter Olympics to find out more on how to keep up with all the latest from China.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. You can also sign up to our newsletters and get a curated selection of our best reads to your inbox every day.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.