Kicking off the evening session of TransCityRail South 2025, dinner attendees were treated to a speech from former Olympic badminton player Gail Emms.
Winning the silver medal in the mixed doubles at the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, as well as gold at the 2004 and 2006 World Championships, Gail represented England in her sport for 13 years. This left her perfectly placed to deliver a message of resilience, determination, and the importance of embracing one's unique journey in sports and life.
Gail began her address by reflecting on her childhood and the significant influence of her mother, a female footballer during a time when girls were often discouraged from playing sports. With a Football Association ban on women playing football in place since 1921, Gail delved into how her mum remained determined: “She loved playing football, and in the late 1960s some girls teams were starting to form, and then in 1971 there was a first-ever Women’s World Cp, held in Mexico City…
“So my mum formed a group, a maverick team, that went over to Mexico City and they played in the Azteca Stadium in front of 90,000 people.”
This determination was, however, punished by the FA when they returned home as they defied the ban on women’s football in England. It was this experience that led to Gail getting into badminton, as her mother didn’t want Gail to face the same abuse that she had experienced.
Beginning to hone her talent in badminton, it was another woman that gave Gail the target of going to the Olympics. At the 1992 games in Barcelona, Sally Gunnell won the 400 metre hurdles, and it gave Gail a glimpse into a world where sportspeople, people who like to win, and people who are competitive are right at home. Speaking about the lightbulb moment that this event gave her, Gail said: “It was like a calling.
“I thought, I want to be that, I want to be an Olympian. And it suddenly all became so real that every time I went to training, I had that vision.”
Despite progress through the England B ranks, and being partnered with Nathan Robertson in a pairing that delivered success across the world at junior level, there was still adversity to come. Gail was dropped by the Head of British Badminton as they believed she didn’t have the natural talent, and that her partner was where all the success came from.
This still did not dissuade Gail from her goal of becoming an Olympian, however. Having taken a few years off whilst she was at university, she aimed for the 2000 Olympics. In order to qualify for the Olympics in Badminton, you are required to be ranked in the top 16 in the world and Gail was making good progress to get better and better, however she found yet another hurdle.
She had finished ranked 17th. One spot away from the games.
That resilience still did not die down. The need to compete at the top level of sport had still not gone from Gail, and that is the message that ran throughout the entirety of her speech.
And it was that resilience that led to her going into the 2004 Olympic games ranked 4th in the World. She had done it.
At those games, she ended up with a silver medal – more than many athletes will achieve in their entire career. But it still wasn’t enough for Gail, having been partnered up with her former partner Nathan for the Olympics, she both wanted that gold medal.
Going on to win gold at the Commonwealth Games, the European Championships, and then the World Championships, They had done it all, except for winning the Olympic gold medal.
Up next came the 2008 games in Beijing, and a tie against the home favourites. With 10,000 people watching, Gail and Nathan silenced the home crowd and beat the favourites for the Olympic gold medal. Going into a quarter-final match against Korea, a pair that they had beaten before, the stars seemed align for the Great Britain partnership to finally achieve that gold medal dream.
As is so often the case with sport, however, stars aligning doesn’t always mean you get your way. Regardless of a top performance, Gail and Nathan were beaten by the pair that would go on to win the gold medal.
Following those games, Gail retired from the sport, but has left behind a legacy that everybody can learn from. Anybody can take inspiration from Gail, and her mother, because theirs is a story of resilience in the face of a mountain of adversity. There are also two lessons to be learnt, the first is that no matter how much the odds seemed to be stacked against you, the only thing that stands in the way of achieving your goals is your mindset. The second lesson is that, as long as you did as well as you can, as long as you gave it your all, you’re a gold medal winner in your own story.
