Seven sports presenter Mel McLaughlin has opened up on her path to becoming one of Australia’s most trusted voices in sport in a wide-ranging interview.
The 44-year-old has cemented herself as one of the most recognisable faces on TV, but declares she is still an “awkward character”.
This month, McLaughlin is the cover star for Prevention magazine, which hit stands on Monday.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
She spoke to the magazine about her path from a young sports fan into journalism, and the family tragedy that motivates her as an ambassador for the Lung Foundation Australia.
Her path to journalism began as a schoolgirl. When others were reading Dolly, she was poring over football magazines.
“There was no internet back then, so that’s how you got your news,” she said.
She was an active athlete, playing netball, cricket, touch football and more.
When she told her school’s career adviser of her passion, she was told: “There aren’t any jobs in sport.”
That led her to a university degree in marine science and zoology — but her interest in sport won out.
She took work experience at a Western Sydney radio station, helping put together bulletins.
Her passion, interest and knowledge caught the attention of the network’s head of sport, who invited her to come on board as a producer.
“We broadcast a sports show to Western Sydney and I learnt everything the hard way — in the best possible way.”
She’s now the face of sport to many of 7NEWS Sydney’s viewers, and has represented the network at major sporting events.
Most recently, she helped lead coverage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
But even that came with learning experiences, McLaughlin revealed, including how to maintain composure when she is so invested in the Australian team’s success.
“I absolutely loved the whole experience; it was heaven,” she recalls.
“But I realised later the most enjoyable experience for me was the final because the Matildas were no longer in it.
“I didn’t realise what a toll it was taking on my insides. I kept putting it down to on-air anxiety, but it was because I was so invested.”
Off-air, McLaughlin is an ambassador for the Lung Foundation Australia.
A motivating factor for her is the tragic death of her older sister, Tara, in 2015.
She died at 39 after a bout with lung cancer, despite never smoking.
McLaughlin said she aims to raise awareness for the disease and address the “hideous stigma” associated with it.
“She lived it, I lived it, we lived it,” McLaughlin said..
“You’d say ‘Tara’s got lung cancer,’ and the first comment would always be ‘Oh, we didn’t know she smoked.’
“But she didn’t. And it’s also not the point. Because if you smoke, you don’t deserve to die either. It doesn’t come up with any other cancer.”
Football came to McLaughlin during her childhood in Sydney, but those experiences will differ greatly from the kids about to find the sport.
She said in an interview with 7NEWS.com.au last June that Australia had a chance with the World Cup to help grow the game even further.
“The game in the last decade is very different to growing up, I’ve always loved the game,” McLaughlin says.
“And for me 20 years ago, you’d go to a little park and maybe the Matildas were playing on a cold, dark night and there weren’t that many people there.
“It just wasn’t really on the radar.
“And the amount of people that said ‘I want to be a Socceroo’ when I played park football with my mates … but people didn’t necessarily go ‘I want to be a Matilda’.
“And this World Cup is going to change that forever.”
Read the entire interview in the October issue of Prevention magazine, which is on newsstands now.