Clare Balding, CBE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Balding

Clare Victoria Balding OBE (born 29 January 1971) is a broadcaster, journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4, BT Sport and formerly presented the religious programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2.

Early life

Balding's father was horse trainer and previously trained champion thoroughbred Mill Reef. She was educated at Downe House in Berkshire, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of comedienne Miranda Hart. Initially she had applied to read law at Christ's College, Cambridge but failed her interview and realised it was not her first choice. She later successfully applied at Newnham College, Cambridge and read English. While at university she was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter 1992 and graduated in 1993 with a 2:1 honours degree.

In 1989 and 1990, Balding was a leading amateur flat jockey and Champion Lady Rider in 1990.

Broadcasting career

She became a trainee with BBC National Radio in 1994, working on 5 Live, Radio 1 (presenting the sport on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show), Radio 2 and Radio 4. In 1995, she made her debut as a television presenter during Royal Ascot. She became BBC horse racing presenter in December 1997 after the retirement of Julian Wilson and has fronted coverage of the Grand National.

She has reported from four Olympic Games, for BBC Radio in Atlanta and for BBC Television in Sydney, Athens and Beijing. She has presented two Paralympic Games, the Winter Olympics from Turin and Vancouver as well as the Commonwealth Games from Melbourne and Delhi. She is the face of the BBC's rugby league coverage, having presented Grandstand from a Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-final, and having been so impressed by the vibrancy and physical challenge of the sport she asked to cover further rugby league events.

She also presents the Lord Mayor's Show as well as other live events for the BBC such as Trooping the Colour and New Year's Eve. In March 2010 she presented Channel Four's coverage of Crufts.

She also presents the walking programme Ramblings for BBC Radio 4 (where she also stands-in on the Saturday Live programme), and Wimbledon for 5 Live.

During the 2009 Grand National, Balding commented on winning jockey Liam Treadwell's teeth and suggested that he could "get them done" with his prize fund. The BBC received 1,477 complaints about the comment, leading to an apology from both the presenter and the BBC.

In 2010, Balding presented a BBC TV series that retraced some of Harold Briercliffe's British cycle tours.

Balding joined Chris Evans as co-host of Channel 4's Famous and Fearless in January 2011. The show has since been cancelled because of poor ratings.

In August 2011 Balding joined BBC's Countryfile, temporarily replacing Julia Bradbury while she was on maternity leave, she co-hosted the show with Matt Baker. Bradbury returned in February 2012.

From February to March 2012 she presented a programme on Radio Four called "Sport and the British". This was a thirty part series looking at the impact of sports on British life.

Writing

Balding has written regular columns for The Observer, the Evening Standard and The Sporting Life. She has signed a deal with Viking Press to write an autobiography entitled My Animals and Other Family, which is due for publication in September 2012.

Awards

Balding was the Royal Television Society's "Sports Presenter of the Year" in 2003. In the same year, she won the "Racing Journalist of the Year Award" and has followed up with the award for "Racing Broadcaster of the Year".

Family and personal life

Balding has close family links to horse racing: her father, Ian Balding, trained Mill Reef, 1971 winner of the Epsom Derby, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and her younger brother, Andrew Matthews Balding, trained Casual Look, the winner of the 2003 Epsom Oaks. The latter win led to a very emotional post-race interview with her brother. Furthermore, her grandfather was the trainer Peter Hastings-Bass and her maternal uncle the 17th Earl of Huntingdon former trainer to Queen Elizabeth II. Her maternal grandmother Priscilla is descended from the Earls of Derby.

In September 2006, she formalised her relationship with the BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader Alice Arnold by entering into a civil partnership. They live in Chiswick, London.

On 29 May 2009, Balding announced that she had thyroid cancer. She told the Daily Mail newspaper that she had her thyroid gland removed and would have radioactive iodine treatment in July that year. She promised to be back on television covering the Epsom Derby, by the following Saturday. On 21 August 2009 she announced on her website the results from a post-treatment scan which showed the radioactive iodine had been successful with no signs of the thyroid cancer having spread anywhere else.

In July 2010, Balding made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over an article by writer A. A. Gill in The Sunday Times that she felt had mocked her sexuality and appearance and for which the newspaper refused to apologise. The PCC found in her favour, judging that AA Gill had "refer[red] to the complainant's sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way".

Charitable activity

Balding participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in order to raise money for charity. Sport Relief Does The Apprentice is part of the BBC's annual charity initiative and aired on 12 March and 14 March 2008.

"The Girls' team", which also included Louise Redknapp, Jacqueline Gold, Kirstie Allsopp and Lisa Snowdon, won the contest, raising over £400,000 from ticket sales and sales on the night of the big event at their shop.

In 2010 Balding became a patron of the British Thyroid Foundation.

Clare Victoria Balding was born on 29 January 1971. She is the daughter of Ian Anthony Balding and Hon. Emma Alice Mary Hastings-Bass.
She was educated at Downe House School, Newbury, Berkshire, England. She was educated at Sorbonne University, Paris, France. She graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) She was a freelance broadcaster and journalist.

The Peerage

Balding was featured in season 13 of the UK version of Who Do You Think You Are and she unearthed the stories of:

• Malcolm Bullock, her great-grandfather, an MP who may have been gay
• Joseph C. Hoagland, her ggg-grandfather, who was a leading businessman and a descendant of the earliest Dutch settlers in New York, including Sara Rapelje, the first European woman born in what would become New York (although she isn't a direct descendant, Sara was the mother of Clare's 8th great grandmother's step-father's other wife)

For more see:

• Clare Balding - Who Do You Think You Are?, The Genealogist