Kiwi sports journalist Ashlee Tulloch proudly displayed her baby bump while working tirelessly to interview some of the world’s biggest sporting stars in the Fifa Women’s World Cup in the past few weeks.
Tulloch, 33, tells Spy she was fortunate to be in great health during the four-week tournament, working as the Eden Park Stadium presenter.
“The adrenaline and excitement of it all was enough to keep me going, even as a non-coffee drinker. Fortunately, my health was great and I tried to take the time each night on the pitch to appreciate how special it was for a female presenter to be visibly pregnant working at the biggest women’s sporting event on the planet.”
That adrenaline went into overdrive when Tulloch was right beside the net as Football Fern Hannah Wilkinson slotted in her historic goal against Norway in the opening match.
“The feeling in the stadium at that moment and the joy in those players’ eyes is still indescribable — I couldn’t sleep that night.
“Hannah and I had recently worked on a project for Olympics.com, so I felt incredibly proud of her and that courageous team.”
Tulloch also worked with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation,) doing daily wrap-ups and filing for the Ticket to the Cup podcast with their national sport reporter, David Mark.
Kiwis got in behind the tournament in record numbers. Sky reports that more than 2.2 million Kiwi viewers watched the Women’s World Cup across Sky Sport and Sky Open (formerly Prime) since it began in July, beating the Women’s Rugby World Cup viewings of 1.9 million.
New Zealanders were hooked from the start, with nearly 900,000 viewers watching the Football Ferns’ opening game against Norway. The Ferns’ elimination match against Switzerland drew an even larger audience, reaching more than a million, the highest viewership recorded in New Zealand for the tournament.
Tulloch started her career as a sports journalist with Newshub in 2011 and after five years moved to New York and Madrid respectively with her Kiwi partner, Jebbe.
Since 2016 she has been based in Madrid, working for the Olympic Channel and Olympics.com. As a presenter, producer and reporter she’s worked around the world covering the Olympic Games, (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022), Youth Olympic Games (YOG) (Buenos Aires 2018, Lausanne 2020) world championships, Olympic qualifying events, red carpet galas and training camps.
Tulloch has interviewed the likes of Serena Williams, Usain Bolt, Roger Federer, Megan Rapinoe, Kelly Slater, Rafael Nadal, Chloe Kim, Lindsey Vonn, Ian Thorpe, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci.
Among her most memorable moments are teaching Jamaican sprinter Bolt the difference between New Zealand and Australia and how to hongi, sitting in a plane cockpit with Spanish tennis star Nadal, playing football with kids in the streets of Senegal, cheerleading in Florida, getting frostbite in Beijing and sitting in hotel lobbies all night trying to upload footage.
“It’s been a wild and marvellous ride,” Tulloch tells Spy.
Her biggest career highlight was watching Lisa Carrington win three Olympic golds in Tokyo.
“I lost my voice afterwards, with several days of the games and many interviews to go, which was less than ideal.”
Tulloch says she has taken a lot of pride in sharing our Kiwi athletes’ stories with a global audience. Earlier this year she and her partner decided it was the right time to move home to New Zealand, after a spot of travelling. It was during those travels that Tulloch discovered she was pregnant. “The most challenging part was having nausea in Morocco while we were doing a month-long surfing trip. The waves were good though.”
Currently based in Auckland, Tulloch says she plans to continue to take on international work as well as local opportunities, and to reconnect with her iwi, Ngāi Tahu.
“Since returning, it’s been great to see the rise of te ao Māori and how much the language and culture has been embraced in New Zealand.”
