Life @ EA

This series of 30-minute interviews are with Accies who have been prominent in the world of sport, either on or off the field of play. Throughout the interviews, we will hear about the skills and life lessons they learned at the Edinburgh Academy to help them succeed in their chosen sports role. Whether as a player, a coach, a writer or an administrator, all will reflect on school life in and out of the classroom and their journey through sport as a career. 
 

Series interviewer, Charles Runcie, was a pupil at the Academy, starting in Miss McKenzie’s Prep 4C at Arboretum Road in 1966, through to Mr Robertson’s VIII Mod class at Henderson Row, a decade later. He enjoyed a 34 year career working in sport at the BBC, joining at Radio Scotland’s Queen Margaret Drive in 1982 before heading south in 1987 to Broadcasting House and BBC Sport. He was latterly Head of Sport for English Regions, a role which as a Scot he always thought quite ironic. 

In the next of the series, Charles talks to Georgina Usher, champion fencer turned sports administrator.  She studied at the Edinburgh Academy from 1988-1990, by which point, girls had established themselves at the school.  Giving up her job in consultancy to move to Eastern Europe, she trained with the best to achieve British number one ranking and success in European and Commonwealth Championships, and still fences competitively today.  She then went on to become the current CEO for British Fencing as well as being on the Board of the British Olympic Association.  Georgina also had, in 2002, a small role in the UK’s most famous film franchises.   

Next Month we look forward to sharing an interview with Andy Mitchell, a well-respected sports author and historian. Make sure to keep a lookout for episode 2 in January.

If you missed the last episode with Robbie McRobbie MBE, you can view it here.