AD: This post is a collaboration with TV Licensing (a trademark of the BBC), but all thoughts and experiences are my own.
I’ve mentioned several times before how we love sports as a family, whether participating in one of the many sports we do or watching live sport on tv. Newer readers may not know that up until last year, our eldest daughter was part of the Team GB Artistic Swimming team (formerly Synchronised Swimming). We’ve watched her compete since she was 10 (now 22) but there have been several times throughout the years, when watching her live on tv was our only option to see her.
2018 European Championships
The major moment that it really hit home how far Millie had come and what she had achieved was at the 2018 European Championships held in Glasgow. This event was extensively covered by the BBC with live broadcasts each day, including the Artistic Swimming. Although we were fortunate to be able to get family tickets to watch the Team events, there were many members of our wider family that were watching along live at home. The messages we all received from people that know Millie, watching the sport for the first time, were just magical.
A particular highlight was Millie being included in the featured snippets on BBC1 just before the 9 o’clock news. A video clip that we still watch to this day!
Competing During Covid
Throughout the Covid pandemic, we were unable to travel out to watch Team GB compete – The live broadcasts from Europeans in Hungary were our only way of keeping up with progress and shouting our support at the telly made us feel so much better (but no less nervous for the team!).
World Championships & Turning 21
Fast forward to last year and Millie made the decision to retire from Artistic Swimming, along with the majority of her team. This is not a sport that you can do part-time at a high level, and she really wanted to concentrate on her final year of her degree. If you are going to retire, you may as well do it at the World Championships, in Japan, on your 21st birthday. Doesn’t get much bigger than that. Sadly, I had had an operation a few weeks earlier and was not allowed to fly so live streaming on the TV it was for us again. I really have no idea how we would have coped not being able to support and watch her last swim after 11 years of hard work.
Of course, this love of sport starts from a young age through watching live sport on TV. Whether it be watching the Artistic Swimming (or synchronised swimming as it was then) at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics and being amazed or through watching the FA Cup every year. I got us thinking, I want to do that, and so live sport has been the thread that has sparked our love of sport throughout the years.
Your TV Licence lets you enjoy a huge range of live TV. It covers you for:
• All TV channels, like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Dave and international channels – but you don’t need a licence if you only watch non-BBC channels on-
demand
• Pay TV services, like Sky, Virgin Media, and BT – but these are platforms that could have both live and on-demand services
• Live TV on streaming services, like YouTube and Amazon Prime Video
• Everything on BBC iPlayer.
This includes recording and downloading. On any device.
