With her hair coated in dust, Dame Sophie Pascoe has had to switch off the concrete grinder and put down her spade and paintbrush. The TV studio is calling.
New Zealand’s most decorated Paralympian and five-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist has been on the tools this year, helping renovate her Christchurch home.
“I’ve found another passion,” Pascoe, 33, says, sitting in her car because the house is too noisy.
“I sent a video to my girlfriends the other day of me on the concrete grinder, ripping up tiles, asking ‘Who am I?’ I’ve shifted four cubic metres of soil and laid bark on top and painted the fence. I’m really proud of myself.”
Her father, Garry, a builder, has shown her how to use the tools. She’s discovered the satisfaction she takes from renovating has much in common with elite sport.
“It reminds me of swimming – getting through the hard work phase but you can see the end goal. You have to keep chipping away. When you finish, you’re like, ‘Wow I did that!’,” says Pascoe.
“I think it’s better than winning a gold medal.”
She hopes the finished house will finally give her a place to display her treasure trove of swimming medals. For now, they still live in a bag.
But that will have to wait as she takes on another challenge – presenting Sky Sport’s daily coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, starting with the opening ceremony on Friday morning, alongside seasoned presenter Laura McGoldrick on the morning shift.
Pascoe put herself forward for the role. “I feel I have the expertise to offer in sport, and the role allows me to continue using my platform and my voice to champion equality,” she says. “I love being able to enhance the Paralympic movement.”
This project comes with its own demands for Pascoe, who will live in Auckland for the 10 days of the Games – away from her husband, Rob Samson, and their two-year-old son.
But she says early mornings with their “chaotic little boy” – and decades of training in the pool – have prepared her for this job.
Pascoe retired from competitive swimming last year, ending her career as an 11-time Paralympic gold medallist and multiple world champion.
She’s relieved to no longer face the relentless early morning training swims or getting in the pool on cold days. But she misses seeing her swimming family every day – her “Team Pascoe”.
“I also miss the routine – you don’t get that with a two-and-a-half-year-old,” she says. “And I miss that feeling of walking out to the blocks, your stomach dropping and the adrenaline rushing through your veins. I still get nervous now, but it’s not the same kind of nervous.
“The best thing about nerves is that you care about what’s in front of you.”
The Sky role isn’t Pascoe’s first dive into sports presenting. She got her first taste during the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, working for TVNZ alongside Scotty Stevenson – an experience she loved, but also found challenging with a six-month-old baby.
“I learned so much from that TVNZ gig, but it was a really hard time personally,” she says. “The personal growth was huge, though, and I found a new love – something that was just for me.”
Pascoe is keen to learn from McGoldrick, who she describes as “the epitome of a sports presenter… I’m constantly wanting to grow and be better.”
In the build-up to these Games, Pascoe has interviewed members of the New Zealand Para bowls team, the Para cyclists, and Para athlete Anna Grimaldi. “I feel I can ask those nitty gritty questions that share insights into the athletes that people wouldn’t know about them, and then they will feel a real connection when they see them on TV,” she says.
During her glittering career, Pascoe competed at three Commonwealth Games and was flagbearer for the New Zealand team at the opening ceremony of 2018 Games on the Gold Coast.
Glasgow in 2014 was her first Commonwealth Games experience. She’d missed out on Melbourne 2006 – the first Commonwealth Games to include Para athletes – by just one second.
“But that was the start for me. Because I’d missed out by such a small margin, I really wanted to go to the next Games in Delhi [2010] but they didn’t have my classification,” she says. “I was really gutted.
“As soon as they announced my classification for Glasgow, I couldn’t wait. I wanted to travel with an integrated team – it was a dynamic I’d never experienced and I was part of a growing movement in Paralympic sport.”
At those Games, Pascoe roomed with fellow swimmer Lauren Boyle. “It was fantastic because we had a very successful room,” she laughs. Boyle won gold in the 400m freestyle, Pascoe collected two golds in the S10 200m individual medley and 100m breaststroke.
“We went through the highs and lows together and we didn’t see each other as being any different. She made me feel really respected as an athlete and a teammate,” says Pascoe, who was also selected with Sevens captain DJ Forbes to have lunch with Queen Elizabeth.
“It was my first Commonwealth Games and there was so much love and respect from everyone on the team. I wish everyone could experience that,” she says.
Six of the 10 sports in a reduced Games in Glasgow include integrated Para sports.
“Our Para athletes are a small contingent, with this year’s Commonwealth Games really stripped back. But they’re a strong part of the New Zealand team, not just making up numbers,” Pascoe says.
“We’re celebrating our Para athletes more than ever in New Zealand. Because we’re such a small nation, our athletes all know each other personally, we train alongside each other. So, we don’t see ourselves as anything different to one another.
“We’re having conversations now around doing more to integrate our support services, and the Commonwealth Games brings that to the forefront.”
But Pascoe doesn’t think an integrated Paralympic and Olympic Games would be feasible. “And I don’t think I’d want it. We still need to have our separate Games, to celebrate our Paralympians, but with the same recognition as our able-bodied athletes,” she says.
The IOC’s recent announcement that all athletes at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will receive a US $10,000 grant has come at the perfect time to fuel a similar discussion around support for Paralympians.
“I’m asked when it’s going to happen for Paralympic athletes, and we have to remember we are a movement at the moment, and things like this take time,” Pascoe says. “I think of my pioneering time where we weren’t even on equal pay here in New Zealand.”
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Pascoe hopes sports governance, and championing inclusion, will be part of her future. She’s just spent three years as an intern on the Swimming New Zealand board, and enjoyed her first governance experience. She plans to do some courses through the Institute of Directors before she dives in further.
“Timing is a big factor. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and we’ll start having conversations around expanding our family. It was a really challenging three years trying to turn up to every board meeting,” Pascoe says.
“You have to make the commitment to the sports organisation or company. I’ve got a nice life juggle at the moment – using my voice in a presenting capacity, doing my speaking engagements, looking after our son, being a homemaker. And then take on governance.”
For all the opportunities retirement has brought, there has also been a confronting adjustment. What Pascoe has found hardest in her transition from athlete to everyday life has been her disability.
“The other side of Para sport people don’t know about is the everyday struggles and adversity the athletes live with on a societal level,” she says.
She will soon need more surgery on her left leg, amputated below the knee after a lawnmower accident three decades ago. “I need to plan for that surgery before we have another child. I want to make sure I’m fit and healthy to bring up two children,” she says.
“It never used to be an issue. My life was very much routine – if I couldn’t do it, I’d find a way to. But during pregnancy, I really found out about my disability. I’m very lucky to have incredible support.”
That support will be crucial while she’s presenting these Games. The day she finishes, she and her husband fly to Canada for a friend’s wedding – meaning she’ll be away from her son for close to a month.
“He will be in Fiji with his grandparents, having the time of his life. It’s me who will struggle with it,” she says.
Pascoe keeps one of her gold medals in her handbag so she can “bring it out and make someone’s day”.
“That’s the gold medal part I love – the fact it can change someone’s life in an instant. Sport for me is how you made someone feel.”
- As the exclusive New Zealand broadcaster, Sky will have up to nine sports channels delivering live coverage of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, with free-to-air round-the-clock coverage on Three. A dedicated ‘Gold Channel’ on Sky Sport 4 will show the biggest moments from Glasgow each night from 7.40pm to 11am. Laura McGoldrick and Dame Sophie Pascoe will host the morning show, Kirstie Stanway will lead evening coverage with Ash Tulloch anchoring the overnight shift. Sky’s reporting team in Glasgow includes Kimberlee Richie, Rikki Swannell and Tia McDougall.
