Ed Leigh (born 15 July 1975) is a British sports presenter and commentator.

Broadcasting career

Ed Leigh is part of the presenting team for the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

show ''

Ski Sunday ''Ski Sunday'' is the BBC Sports weekly magazine-style television show covering winter sports, broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays in a late afternoon or an early evening time-slot. It began in 1978, and is currently presented by Ed Leigh ...

'' and regularly works for Red Bull TV on a host of live events from skateboarding and BMX, through to Enduro and mountain biking. He also worked with Whisper Films as the live anchor for Sail GP’s first two seasons of international coverage,. Probably best known as the BBC’s voice of action and adventure sports at the Olympics. Leigh has commentated on the winter games since 2006 and the summer games since 2012. Leigh got his first regular work on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

award winning series ''Freesports On 4'' covering action sports events around the world. Leigh has built up a diverse portfolio of work ranging from '' Ed vs. Spencer'' for

Sky 1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

to My Life As An Animal for

BBC3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

. Having worked as editor of Whitelines Snowboard Magazine, Leigh's TV career started presenting ''Trailer Park'' on Turners CNX channel CNX, alongsid
Christian Stevenson
After doing the voice over for the

Extreme Sports Channel The Extreme Sports Channel is a pay television channel that was launched from Amsterdam on 1 May 1999. The channel broadcasts in over 60 countries and 12 languages, and covers extreme sport and adventure sports which include surfing, skateboardi ...

's Gumball 3000 series in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, he followed the Rally as a hitch hiker/presenter for

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and '' Gumball 2006: Around the world in 8 days''. In 2007, Leigh became co-presenter of the BBC's ''

'' series with Graham Bell after his commentary at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

helped bring the snowboarding to life: his memorable exclamation "Drama! Jacobellis is down!" at the comedic climax of the Women's Snowcross Final made his name. Leigh has commentated on snowboarding events at the all subsequent Winter Olympics. Leigh presented a spin show from ''Ski Sunday'', ''High Altitude'', which ran for the winter of 2009 on BBC2, with Graham Bell. During the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Ed commentated on Beach Volleyball for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

alongside

Matt Chilton Matt Chilton is a sports journalist, commentator and presenter. He has worked for Eurosport since 1992, and for BBC Sport since the mid-nineties. Matt is a ski racing specialist and has been a contributor to Ski Sunday since 1996. He has been a r ...

and also at the BMX event in the cycling. During the 2021 season in Laax, Leigh dislocated his knee cap and broke his tibia.

Other appearances

In spring 2009, Leigh appeared on ''

My Life as an Animal ''My Life as an Animal'' is a British reality television series broadcast on BBC Three and presented by Rebecca Wilcox. In each episode, two volunteers spend four days with a different species of animal, living how they live in an attempt to be ...

'' on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

where he lived with dogs for a week.

Professional career

Previous to his broadcast career, Leigh's CV included professional snowboarding, journalism, event management, cleaning mega yachts and windsurf instructing. However in 1997, after a chance meeting in London, he centred his efforts on ''Laughing Gear'', a commentary and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

company set up with friend Christian Stevenson. Leigh started his snowboarding career working in Chalford based snowboard shop, Noahs Ark. After spending five years snowboarding in the resort of

Val d'Isère Val may refer to: Val-a Film * ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo Military equipment * Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies * AS Val, a Sov ...

a knee injury forced him to take a season off and he was offered a job as teaboy at ''White Lines'' snowboarding magazine, which he had been contributing to on a freelance basis. Six months later he was editor of the magazine which opened the doors to other media opportunities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leigh, Ed British television presenters 1975 births Living people