Sportsister meets basketball star Jo Leedham

August 4, 2010

Sportsister recently caught up with last year’s British Basketball’s Olympic athlete of the year, Jo Leedham, to talk about her life on and off the court.

Jo-Leedham At just 22, Jo is a rising star across the basketball circuit. Voted British Basketball’s Olympic athlete of the year, she represented them at the Sports Personality of the Year awards and will be playing in the GB Women’s team for a series of crucial European Championship qualifiers later this summer.

“I was completely shocked to be chosen as British Basketball’s Olympic athlete,” she says. “You know, there’s just so many good athletes out there and when I got the email I couldn’t believe it! It’s just an amazing feeling and I was so proud.”

Early days

Jo has come a long way since being ‘dragged’ along to practices by her older sister. Growing up in Cheshire, her first experience of basketball was at the Cheshire Youth Games, fueled by a love of netball.

“I’ve got a younger sister and an older sister and we all played netball,” she explains. “My older sister and a few of her friends decided to take part in the Youth Games, and they couldn’t play netball because they all played at county level. So someone was just like, ‘why don’t you try this thing called basketball, it’s a little bit similar but a little bit different at the same time’. So my older sister, Jennifer, went to practice and dragged me along one day. It kind of kicked off from there.”

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American dream

At the age of 16, Jo took her game over to America, beginning a successful college career at Franklin Pierce. She has recently been drafted into the Connecticut Suns team in the Women’s NBA, but admits it was hard to adjust to life in the States.

“We never really thought that we could do anything with basketball, but a few people mentioned that we should go to America, so we kind of took the idea and ran with it,” she says. “Of course, America is the land of opportunity isn’t it, and it just opened up so many doors for me and my sister.”

Throughout, Jo has remained very loyal to her home country and chose not to take up her spot in the Women’s NBA for a year to enable her to play for Team GB.

Jo-Leedham-2

“Playing for my national team is really, really important to me,” she explains. “It’s crucial that we have a really good summer so that played a part in not taking up the spot.”

The future’s bright…

However, coming back to play in England is no walk in the park. For Jo it means constant training sessions, with everything geared towards the looming 2012 Olympics and EuroBasket qualifiers – a double header with the men’s and women’s games, which Jo feels will heighten the awareness of the women’s side of the sport.

“Having it with the men’s game will obviously generate more supporters, but I think what’s good for us this year is that three years ago all our games were in Cardiff whereas this year we’re in more big city areas like Birmingham and Liverpool.

“A lot of the girls come from the North so there’ll be a lot of family and friends coming out for that game. I’ve spoken to a lot of them who say no, we don’t want to watch the men, we want to watch the women! So that’s amazing.”

Even when not training with the team, keeping fit is something Jo finds very important, with training on and off the court at the forefront of her mind.

“I’m a member of Fitness First and when I come home I like to do the classes. When we were away me and Rose [Anderson, Team GB team mate] wanted to go to a Brazilian Samba class but it clashed so we couldn’t go.

“I’ll go to classes with my mum sometimes, but I can’t be serious ‘cause watching her is so funny!”

So, overall it’s been a successful career to date for British Basketball’s Olympic athlete of the year. With lots in store for the next couple of years, Jo is confident that the future of basketball in Britain is looking good.

“The future is looking very bright! I think we can only go up with women in basketball in Britain. This summer I’m hoping we’ll be able to show the rest of Britain how hard we’ve been working and how much we’ve all improved and how good the female game is as well.

“I think the only way is up for us, so I’m excited!”

Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

British Basketball and the GB Women’s team is sponsored by Standard Life, the leading long term savings and investments company. Standard Life has over 6 million customers worldwide and provides an extensive range of products and services, aimed at meeting the financial requirements of customers throughout their lives.

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