Interview with JJ Chalmers ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Channel 4

27 August 2024

We sat down with JJ Chalmers ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Channel 4

JJ! You’re no stranger to hosting Paralympic Games coverage on Channel 4, are you excited to be back for another year?
I’m really excited for be back for another year on the Paralympic Games. My first one for Channel 4 was back in 2016 in Rio and it was incredible but there was a little sense that while all this amazing action was happening, people back in the UK were sleeping. This time, with Paris in our time zone, I’m really excited about how the country is going to come alive during the Paralympics.  

Tell us what you’ll be getting up to this year?  
I’ll be presenting the daytime show this year, which will be a combination of highlights from the morning’s action and coverage of live events during the afternoon as well. We’ll be bringing people right into the heart of the city, we’ll have the Eiffel Tower in the background and we’ll be giving everyone a sense of the buzz of Paris and celebrating the amazing athletes. 

Do you have a favourite Paralympic event?  
I love so many of the Paralympic sports, but my favourite is probably wheelchair rugby. It’s a brutal fast-paced sport and obviously back in Tokyo, ParalympicsGB brought home the gold medal for the first time and it was such a huge moment to beat USA. If we could achieve that again, it would be incredible. 

What do the Paralympics mean to you?   
The Paralympics means so much to me. I was wounded in Afghanistan in 2011 and I was still very early on in my recovery during London 2012. I remember the ‘Super Humans’ advert so clearly and I remember feeling, for the first time, proud to be disabled. It was this moment when I suddenly realised that regardless of what I’d been through I was now in a special club, and I had people I could look up to and aspire to be like and that magic never ceases. Equally, I just love the competition of it. The sport itself is incredible, the rivalries are fierce, it’s an amazing competition but it’s a community and a movement and to be a little part of that is so special. 

And what role does sport have in your life?  
Sport was the catalyst that changed my life. It took me from recovery, it took me from doing things in life that had been forced upon me – I mean learning how to feed myself again, learning how to put my clothes on again, the mundane things we all have to do that 13 years ago I couldn’t. Once I could live a somewhat independent life, I had to figure out who I was and it was sport that unlocked that for me. I competed for a short while but, actually, what it taught me was all the skills, the motivations, all the values I had garnered up to that point, particularly being in the military, I could apply to something new.  Now, I want to tell these sporting stories, I want to be able to shine a light on these incredible athletes and the journeys they’ve been on so we can educate people. It’s such a powerful thing, it genuinely can change the world, it can change how society is wired. And at the end of the day, it’s fun. If you just want to come along to see an amazing competition, come and see who wins and hopefully they’ll be wearing a GB vest. 

When you first started competing after your injury, could you ever have envisaged your life would have taken this direction into presenting? 
Of course not. I kind of have two lives. I was 17 when I joined the Marines, so over 18 years ago, and maybe there’s a time when a part of me would have liked the idea of me doing this for a living, but I never would have thought it possible. I had a relatively privileged upbringing up in Scotland but still I didn’t think there was a place for me on TV, so it definitely makes me realise now, as I live with a disability and I’m in a minority community in our society, that the opportunities are even harder. That is why is the Paralympics is so important and, for me, it was my steppingstone into the industry. I had a lived experience and an expertise I could bring that others couldn’t, and I’ve been so fortunate to branch out from there. Of course, I never dreamt that any of this was possible but, equally, maybe I should have done and anyone watching should think the same thing. There should be a place for every different voice in our society on TV, it’s really important. 

What are you most looking forward to about Paris 2024?   
There’s so much to look forward to. My kids are five and seven and they’re the age I was when I first remember the Olympics and Paralympics in Barcelona in 1992. It suddenly burst onto the TV, it was everywhere and I loved watching as much of it as I could. I’m excited for my kids and everyone else to experience that. We’ll have the warmup that is the Olympics and then everyone will be well and truly ready for the Paralympics to kick down their doors and take over their lives.   

 

Channel 4 is broadcasting more hours of live sport with more ways to watch than ever before. How important is the Channel to the profile of the Paralympics?  
Channel 4 has completely changed the profile of the Paralympic Games, starting back in 2012 when it was such a hugely impactful Games and it really made people aware that this thing exists. When I say ‘this thing’ I don’t just mean the sport, I mean the community and what can be learned from it. Channel 4 put our Paralympians up on a pedestal where they deserve to be as elite sports people and it’s continued to do so through Rio and Tokyo, and the Winter Games, now here we are ready for Paris. The way our community has moved forward in just over a decade is almost immeasurable and Channel 4 has been at the heart of that.  

We can’t forget you’re going to be in Paris! What’s your favourite thing to do?   
Outside of sport, it’s got to be wine and cheese. Coffee, croissants, all the clichéd suff. Small bistros and the buzz of the city. 

In your downtime from hosting duties, what do you hope you’ll be able to get up to?
I want to hang out with our awesome Channel 4 team. One of the most amazing things about the Paralympics is being inside the bubble. You can go to Paris any time, but you can’t go to Paris during the Paralympics, that’s a once in a lifetime thing.  

How is your French? Give us your best phrase  
My French is un peu. I was recently working near Versailles and in a café I ordered ‘un café avec un croissant au chocolat s'il vous plait?’ and the woman replied, ‘Do you want milk with that?’ I had tried so hard!

Stream and watch live on Channel 4 all day, every day from Wednesday 28th August to Sunday 8th September