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90 • Sport, Media and Society

phase’ (‘Bad Luck’ 2004: 15). Hughes described her attitude as one of ‘cold, calcu-
lated determination’ and suggested that ‘when she cruised round the fi nalists yester-
day, there was an eerie lack of camaraderie, an initial lack of human response to her’
(Hughes 2004: 14). The Observer quoted her former coach Arnold, who said, ‘She
can be very aggressive, and very, very determined’ (Smith 2004: 3), and described
her ‘ascetic lifestyle’, which meant ‘no drinking and few nights out’ (Smith 2004:
3). The News of the World revealed ‘the secret that drove Kelly to win a second gold
medal—Alicia Keys’ song If I Ain’t Got You playing over and over in her mind’.
This love song was interpreted by Holmes as being ‘about my gold medal’ (Sabey
and Bhatia 2004: 6), giving an indication of Holmes’s personal priorities. The same
qualities that were viewed positively in relation to Holmes’s sporting success were
treated more ambivalently with respect to her personal life, questioning her ability to
perform successful femininity and achieve at sport simultaneously.

Kelly’s Secret Dad: Class and Gender in the Press Narratives

Hills and Kennedy (2009) pointed to the ways that the press portrayal of Holmes’s

naked ambition conflicted with the upper-middle-class, amateur gentleman legacy of
British sport culture, which devalues trying too hard. Simultaneously, however, the
reports of her discipline and self-control departed from typical media portrayals of
the British working class as excessive and unrestrained (Skeggs 2004). Nevertheless,
the press coverage continued to draw on traditional framing devices for representing
sportswomen and working-class Britons, combining infantalisation with a focus on
an ill-disciplined and turbulent home life.
The front page of the Sunday Mirror previewed a story inside the paper with
‘Golden Kelly’s Secret Dad’ against an image of Holmes at the moment of victory
and a smaller photograph of a smiling black man with greying hair. The story was
given a double-page spread inside the paper, with the headline running across both
pages: kelly’s real dad talks for the first time (Stretch 2004: 4–5). Another

headline taking up a third of the first page of the article was a quote from Derrick
Holmes: ‘I Wish I Could Hug My Little Girl Again . . . but She Doesn’t Want to
Know Me’ (Stretch 2004: 4). The photograph of Derrick Holmes on the next page
presented him in a light-hearted pose and was captioned: ‘ladies’ man But Derrick
Is Desperate for a Reconciliation’. The article’s reference to Derrick Holmes as an
‘emotional’, ‘happy-go-lucky’ ‘ladies man’, inhabiting a ‘down-at-heel’ area, some-
one who ‘struggles financially’ ‘touting for work door-to-door’ or ‘in some pub with

a pint in one hand and a young lady in the other’ (Stretch 2004: 5) evoked the media
stereotype of dissolute working-class behaviour patterns that could not be used to
frame Holmes herself.
Hills and Kennedy (2009) pointed out that the tabloids were not alone in focusing
on Holmes’s childhood and family background. The Observer presented a rags-to-riches