Voices of Sport: John Inverdale - The unflappable presenter who has been our companion at the big events for decades

In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. As we look forward to a bumper feast of festive action, presenter John Inverdale goes under the spotlight.

This series has featured many famous characters from a bygone era. This week, we profile somebody that has been very much part of our modern sporting lives.

If you’ve followed sport on radio and television over the past 30 years, there’s no way you will have missed John Inverdale. Whether you’ve been tuning into the Olympics, Wimbledon, The Open or Cheltenham, Inverdale has so often been the main man.

A great radio operator throughout his career, Inverdale has spent more time on TV as the years have gone on. Whatever the medium, he remains in the very top echelon of contemporary broadcasters, with viewers and listeners everywhere respecting his genuine love of sport and natural authority.

It’s no surprise that sport has always been a huge part of Inverdale’s life. He has always enjoyed playing rugby union, and while at university in Southampton, he captained the tennis team.

He had his eye on a life in journalism from his early days. He edited the student newspaper during his time on the south coast, before he started his career in print journalism at the Lincolnshire Echo.

Radio wasn’t far behind however, and Inverdale joined BBC Radio Lincolnshire in 1982. Three years later he began working for national BBC stations.

In those days, Radio 2 was the home of sport on the radio. The main Saturday afternoon programme was called Sport on 2, and wasn’t dissimilar from the offerings of today, expect there was a little bit less of everything. It began at 1.30pm, and carried second half commentary of a key football match.

Inverdale became the main presenter of the programme, a job he carried on doing for six years. A new station, Radio 5, went on the air in 1990, followed in 1994 by 5 Live. But the Saturday programme stayed the same. Inverdale suited it very well, remaining unflappable no matter what the dramas.

The main highlights I recall during his time on the programme include the 1991 Rugby World Cup, where England beat old rivals Scotland to reach the final, but lost to Australia in the Twickenham climax. There was also an infamous day in racing history, the 1993 Grand National that had a bungled start and became the “race that never was”. And of course there were countless football dramas, as the old Division One made way for the Premier League and the FA Cup continued to throw up its shock results.

I’d argue Inverdale has been the No.1 voice in radio sport for the last 30 years. I’ve always thought it’s his natural home too. The story has it that Jenny Abramsky, the launch controller of 5 Live, was so impressed by his style presenting sport that she tried to incorporate that into all forms of presentation on the new station, including news coverage. She wanted it to be informal and relaxed, but also intelligent. Pure Inverdale in other words.

Indeed, Inverdale has always been at home working on news programmes too. He presented the daily drivetime programme Nationwide in those early years of 5 Live, picking up a Sony Broadcaster of the Year award in 1997.

Even to this present day, a good deal of Inverdale’s work is in that cherished old medium. He is the main host of 5 Live’s coverage from the Cheltenham Festival at the start of spring – which he clearly relishes as a big fan of National Hunt racing – and leads the BBC radio golf team at both The Open and Ryder Cup.

Inverdale just works so well on radio, having a natural warmth and sense of occasion about him. Actually, that’s one of his real strengths. He brings a real gravitas to a major event. When he goes on air at the start of the Cheltenham Festival or Open Championship, he just sells the event so brilliantly. He makes you feel that you want, even need, to spend the next few days enjoying some great sport with the radio team.

It’s possibly even fair to say that he set the benchmark for modern presentation, which has now become standard, with the likes of Mark Pougatch and now Mark Chapman following in his footsteps.

The Olympic Games has always been a big event for Inverdale, ever since he was part of the Radio 2 team at the 1988 Games in Seoul. I well remember him fronting late night 5 Live coverage during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Actually, millions must have shared that Games with him as they headed to bed.

After one particularly memorable night of track and field, which featured a 100m final that saw Linford Christie disqualified and Donovan Bailey winning gold – along with Jonathan Edwards just missing out on triple jump gold – I recall him saying: “Sport really is one of the great trivialities, but sometimes, how glorious is it?”

Rugby union is probably still seen as Inverdale’s main sport. He played at a decent standard for Esher, and has clearly always loved the sport deeply. The World Cups of 1995 in South Africa and 2003 in Australia saw Inverdale in his element as the main presenter for 5 Live.

Both tournaments produced unforgettable sporting moments while he was on the air – South Africa President Nelson Mandela handing the trophy to home captain Francois Pienaar in 1995 and Jonny Wilkinson nervelessly slotting over a last-gasp drop goal to break the hearts of hosts Australia and win the 2003 tournament for England.

As the years have gone on, Inverdale has also expanded his television portfolio. In the 1990s, he began presenting a late night discussion and magazine programme, On Side. And today the majority of his year is spent working in front of the camera.

His time at the Olympics has now become TV rather than radio based, including presenting BBC coverage of the rowing at the London and Rio Games, which both featured some memorable British gold medals. He also presented the athletics coverage in London, with its many wonderful moments including Mo Farah’s long distance double.

Since 2006, he’s been the main presenter of the BBC’s Six Nations coverage, although these days coverage is shared with ITV. For many years, he fronted the BBC’s daily highlights programme from Wimbledon, before moving to his current role as TV commentator during the SW19 fortnight.

Inverdale, who for so long has been associated with the BBC, has moved to the other side too, working for ITV at events like the French Open tennis and the 2015 Rugby World Cup. I always think he’s at his best when he has proper time to settle into an event, and always seems particularly assured and relaxed during the fortnight of ITV coverage from Roland Garros in the spring.

It also has to be said that Inverdale has been no stranger to controversy in recent times. He clumsily said this about tennis star Marion Bartoli before her appearance in the 2013 Wimbledon final: “I just wonder if her dad did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, ‘Listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker’. ” Inverdale was accused of being sexist and apologised on air the following day.

He also mistakenly swore during radio coverage at Cheltenham, and appeared to have some difficulties working alongside Sir Steve Redgrave at the recent Rio Olympics. The rowing legend rolled his eyes in Inverdale’s direction and shook a wet umbrella over his head.

At one stage, there was so much criticism of him that one national newspaper asked earlier this year: “Why does everyone hate John Inverdale?”

If you ask me, nearly all that business has been absurdly overblown. Inverdale is still one of the giants of broadcasting. It’s true that he may have the odd clumsy moment, but if you weigh it up against his millions of sensible words, I think he’s still built up plenty of credit in the positive bank.

Inverdale shows no signs of stopping. Why should he? Those big sporting occasions wouldn’t feel quite the same without him. There’s another Cheltenham and Roland Garros coming in the new year, then a Ryder Cup in 2018, and a Rugby World Cup in 2019.

Inverdale, who turns 60 in 2017, is still pretty near the top of his game. He has become one of the most famous voices of our sporting times.