Sophie Morgan On Representation In Sports Broadcasting

The Paris 2024 Paralympics are underway, and history is already being made. For one, the Games are providing more coverage than ever, with a record number of broadcasters covering all 22 sporting events live for the first time, per NBC. But additionally, NBCU’s Paralympics coverage is being led by hosts with disabilities for the first time ever. And while this may be a step that should have been taken years ago, it’s a move worth celebrating for all it means for disability representation.

Sophie Morgan is one of the new faces of NBC’s coverage, but a familiar one to many UK households. Morgan first appeared on screen in 2004 as part of a BBC reality TV series, and has been a TV host and commentator since 2012, when she had a small presenter role for Channel 4’s 2012 Summer Paraympics in London. Her segue into sports broadcasting came into full force at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and she has been a mainstay on British sports screens since then.

Morgan’s career as a TV host and sports commentator has been long and accomplished — but prior to booking her first job, she never thought the profession was an option for her, a young wheelchair user, simply because she’d never seen an example of someone else doing it.

“When I was first injured at 18, I didn’t know any other young disabled women. I hadn’t been exposed to many wheelchair users, so I was really in the dark about what was possible for me, which was harmful,” Morgan tells PS. “I now know how important it is to have representation of disabled people because I’ve lived in a world where for so long I felt like I was so out of place.” When she was starting out in TV, she hoped to be that example of representation she was missing.

Now Morgan is stepping onto her biggest stage yet, covering the Paralympics for NBCU as part of the historic team with Lacey Henderson and Chris Waddell. Together they bring with them a wealth of lived experience of disability that many hosts who aren’t disabled simply do not have. Morgan believes this will add unique value to their commentating — and many para-athletes, viewers, and fans of parasports agree.

Why Representation in Sports Broadcasting Matters

While people with disabilities aren’t a monolith and have different perspectives and experiences, in general people who understand what it’s like to have a disability are familiar with the common pitfalls those without disabilities run into when reporting on parasports. For instance, nondisabled people often have, “a fear they’re going to say something offensive or wrong,” Morgan says. “That’s a human instinct. No one wants to upset anyone intentionally and when it comes to disability, because there’s not much exposure to it, often someone might be trying to say something nice, but it will come across as offensive, patronizing, pitying, or really, let’s call it ableist.”

Avid parasports watcher Kathryn (who asked to be identified by first name only) tells PS: “It doesn’t always, but having disabled people commentating can limit how much of the superhuman, inspiration porn narrative [is] shared,” referring to an ableist trope in which people with disabilities are objectified to motivate or inspire people without disabilities.

This year some of the world’s most talented Paralympic champions, including sprinter Amber Sabatini and wheelchair tennis champion Gustavo Fernandez, have co-signed a social media campaign that challenges another ableist habit that’s affected how people talk about the Paralympic Games: the tendency to refer to the athletes as “participants” and not “competitors.” Morgan refers to this disparity as “offensive” for “implicitly assuming within . . . tone that [para-athletes are] any less than their counterparts.”

“A Paralympian will most often train the same number of hours as an Olympian — and they most certainly put in the same level of effort, dedication (and pain),” notes Eleanor Robinson, a retired Paralympic swimmer for Team Great Britain. “To suggest that they are putting their bodies through blood sweat and tears for the joy of ‘participation’ and inclusion greatly diminishes their feats of sporting prowess. A Paralympian competes for the same reasons as an Olympian — to win and taste success.”

Not only are hosts with disabilities less likely to repeat these harmful ideas; they’re also well-positioned to call them out when they hear them from others. As Morgan says, “I’m an advocate first and foremost, so I love to lean into conversations around language and attitudes and societal models and perceptions — the bigger themes.” And she’s not afraid to have those conversations on screen.

Another reason representation is so important is that, as Robinson tells PS: “The presence of disabled people on screen aids our collective familiarization of impairments and all body types. The more familiar we are with the uniqueness and variation of the human anatomy — and disconnect ourselves from ideas about the ‘typical body’ — the less anatomy and aesthetics matter.”

Looking Beyond Representation

Morgan’s desire for better representation of disability in media encouraged her to keep pursuing TV roles, even as she faced numerous barriers, such as being boxed into covering only topics that explicitly related to being disabled.

But Morgan knows representation alone isn’t enough. So in 2023 she partnered with Disability Rights advocate Keely Cat-Wells to found Making Space Media, a division of the talent acquisition and learning platform Making Space. The platform aims to serve as an antidote to the obvious lack of screen time people with disabilities receive in mainstream media by creating secure and sustainable employment opportunities for disabled talent.

Morgan is also leading a talent training program developed as part of a partnership between Making Space and NBC. “We trained up the talent with the hope that they would be cast in the Games and a number of them have been,” she says. But the plan is for Paris to just be the beginning. NBC and Making Space are collaborating to produce more disabled hosts, analysts, and play-by-play sportscasters across sports media as a whole.

Many hope that the Paris Paralympics will prove that attitudes are changing for good. Matt Scott, a retired Paralympian and now a NBC reporter in Paris, sees the improving coverage of parasports as evidence that although society “has had a misinformed and misguided belief that disability equals inability, [it now] has had no choice but to reconsider the preconceived notions and accept more inclusivity in every industry, including mainstream media.”

Morgan also hopes that this year’s commitment to increased coverage is a trend that continues. “They have put these Games on the sidelines and then get surprised that there aren’t many people watching it,” Morgan says, drawing comparisons to the experience of women’s professional sports in the past. “This frustrates me about television. People fall back on that notion — but why would they watch if it’s buried on a channel that doesn’t get the same marketing budget and promotion? It’s not about the sport, it’s about the way it’s positioned.”

And although Paris is still in full swing, Morgan already has her eye on the LA Games in 2028, and is excited about what it can do for the disability conversation in the US. “LA is one of the most influential cities globally, and Hollywood is the storyteller of the world,” she says. “The way we can change perceptions around disability is through storytelling. So we have got the perfect ingredients, we just need the recipe for change.”

Hannah Turner is a disabled writer and journalist living with complex chronic illnesses. Her writing focuses on disability, anti-wellness culture, and pop culture. Her words have appeared in many places, including PS, Refinery29, Mashable, and Dazed.