Gail Emms: From Olympic Medalist to Financial Struggles and Resilience

Gail Emms, the Olympic badminton medallist, says that more than a decade after winning silver in Athens she faced financial hardship with almost nothing in the bank. In 2017 she says she had 23p to her name, a low point she describes as the wake-up call of life after sport.

Emms won gold in mixed doubles at the 2004 European Championships and the 2006 World Championships with partner Nathan Robertson, and she earned Olympic silver in Athens in 2004. She retired from competition in 2008 and has since built a career in coaching, broadcasting and motivational speaking, while also speaking publicly about the mental health challenges athletes can face after retirement.

Her background includes her father Anthony, who ran a large building firm that collapsed during the late 1980s recession. The family faced financial turmoil as the business failed, and he later split from Emms's mother. He died in 2017 after years of financial struggle and separations within the family, a personal history Emms says shaped her views on money.

Emms grew up in Bedford and started working early, doing a paper round at 13 and a Saturday job at 16 in a sweetshop on Bedford High Street. She describes earning money that sometimes did not reflect the hours she put in, and says she did not argue about pay.

She notes that Olympic athletes often do not receive support after they retire. She points to the 2012 London Games as a high point when non-competing athletes could find work as speakers. That year she earned more than 100,000, the most she has ever made, a level she achieved through a robust slate of engagements during a burst of Olympic attention.

Her finances include a pension with Halifax since 2003, though it is small, and equity tied up in property. She bought a run-down three-bedroom flat in Bedford in 2000 for 50,000, renovated it with her father, lived in it for two years, and sold it for 110,000 to fund the deposit on her current home. She bought the house she is in now in 2003 for 180,000, a property she kept through the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021 she and her partner sold their house and realized a substantial gain, then spent around 10,000 on a holiday to Dubai which she later felt was not ideal. She also has a desire to keep her current home and to own a beachside retreat in Majorca, Ibiza or the Algarve where she would play padel and pickleball and badminton, have animals, and simply be happy. Her top financial priority is her two boys and helping them become savvy, secure and grateful with money.

She has published a book titled Grit & Goose Feathers – Chasing Medals And Finding Me. My Olympic Journey Uncovered, published by Pitch Publishing, which she describes as a candid account of a life in sport and the work required to stay financially resilient after elite competition. Emms remains active in sport through coaching and media work, and she says her postcompetitive path has helped her cope with the mental health challenges that can accompany the end of a sporting career.