Gabby Logan

Template:Infobox actor television Gabby Logan (born Gabrielle Nicole Yorath on 24 April 1973) is a British television presenter and former Welsh international gymnast.

She currently presents for BBC Sport, mainly on football.

Biography

The daughter of former Wales international football player and manager Terry Yorath. Aged 10, she decided she wanted to present the BBC's nightly news program "Newsnight." Logan was educated at Hild Bede College, Durham University, where she read Law.

Logan played netball for the school and at university, competed at high jump, but the peak of her sporting career was when she gained eighth place in Rhythmic gymnastics representing Wales at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. She had to retire from gymnastics aged 17 due to sciatica.

Broadcaster and presenter

After university she presented on Metro Radio in Newcastle, from where she was offered a job as a presenter on Sky Sports.

Logan's career came to notice when she fronted "On the Ball" for ITV1. After ITV1 lost the terrestrial rights to the FA Premier League, she has presented ITV's UEFA Champions League football coverage, including the 2006 final, between Arsenal and Barcelona. She has also presented other programmes including ITV's 2005 Super Bowl coverage.

Logan took part in the celebrity version of Stars in Their Eyes as Sharleen Spiteri of Texas - although she lost to Debra Stephenson, Spiteri sent flowers to congratulate her on her performance. She writes regularly for The Times newspaper, and has also done a sexy photo shoot for men's magazine GQ.

Births of Twins, return of Rider

Since the birth of her twins and the return of Steve Rider to ITV, she had been given a co-host role. This included ITV's coverage of the 2006 World Cup, on which she later commented: "I interviewed David Beckham but I didn't see a single game. It dented my confidence and made me question my abilities. If you've got ambition and you want to do well, it's obviously disappointing."

In August 2006 when Champions League returned to ITV, Logan was not present and it was announced that Rider would front with Jim Rosenthal as deputy. Under the ITV team section of the ITV football website, it announced that Logan would front ITV's UEFA cup coverage.

In September 2006, it was announced that ITV had banned Logan from competing in the fourth series of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, which began on 7 October, 2006 (though she did appear in the studio audience at least once). She was told that she would appear in rival ITV series Dancing on Ice, which returned on 13 January, 2007, but refused to take part

Transfer to BBC

In October 2006, the Daily Mirror reported that the BBC was interested in signing her up for their sports coverage, following her fall from favour at ITV. On 19 December, 2006 it was announced that Logan had quit ITV, in favour of a move to the BBC in a three year deal.

Logan will front an all new sports news show, cover live sport events and work on BBC Radio 5 Live projects, like Fighting Talk, in which she has occasionally been the stand in presenter for Colin Murray. Logan started presenting on BBC Sport on 27 January, 2007, presenting the FA Cup fourth round tie between Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers.

Personal life

Logan married the former Scotland international rugby player Kenny Logan on 19 July 2001.

After undergoing IVF treatment, on 28 July 2005 Logan gave birth to twins - Reuben McKerrow, born at 11.40pm; Lois Maya, born 12 minutes later. McKerrow is the maiden name of Kenny's mother Elizabeth.

She runs and plays golf, and supports Newcastle United.

External links

• Gabby Logan at IMDb