Our Stories: Katie Sadleir
“It’s just so hot!” Attempting to avoid a summer heatwave on her drive up to Birmingham, Katie Sadleir is bubbling with excitement. Just days before the opening of the Games, Katie, the CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is busy reviewing Covid practices for late entry arrivals and preparatory workshops for para athletes, as well as overseeing the launch of the Commonwealth Pride House, and with the Commonwealth Sports Ministers’ conference. It is clear she is firmly invested in her organisation’s strapline ‘Sport is just the beginning’.
“I mean, it's central and its core and it's our reason to be. But it's what happens as a result of those conversations in sport - the trade programmes, the huge legacy stuff… that whole series of significant stakeholder opportunities that wrap around making the most of the Games in terms of forging relationships beyond this period”, she says. For Katie, the true buzz of the Commonwealth multi-sport environment lies in what this “multicultural hothouse… does to actually grow people”.