Photography: Amalia Osborne.
For Kimberlee and Ollie Ritchie, the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast was where their love first sparked. This month, the now-married couple is returning to Games duty in Glasgow – carrying welcome extra baggage in their one-year-old son Nico.
“Thankfully, Nico is an experienced traveller – he’s been on a lot of flights around the country,” says Ollie, who will front sports for ThreeNews from Scotland.
Juggling their high-profile presenting roles with being first-time parents, Glasgow 2026 will be a very different assignment for the dad and doting mum Kimberlee, who is leading Sky Sport’s athletics coverage.
“The logistics are crazy,” tells Kimberlee. “But I feel really lucky in the position we are in that we are both able to continue chasing our careers while prioritising a little human.”
The family behind the front line
Kimberlee, 35, and Ollie, 32, are old hands at reporting on international sports events, including multiple Games and Rugby World Cups between them, but they’re the first to confide that, like any new parents, they’re grappling with the day-by-day juggle.
“Grandparents are crucial,” says Kimberlee. “With me going back to work, there have definitely been some dates where we’ve had clashes of work and we’ve needed that support. I don’t think we’d be able to do it without our parents’ support, from both sides of the family.”
Kimberlee’s retired parents, Alison and Chris Downs, travel up from her hometown of New Plymouth to help out, including when she first returned from maternity leave to cover the ASB Classic Auckland Tennis Open in January. This allowed for Nico to be at the courts for feeding between filming.
Ollie’s father, Graham, a cameraman on shows including David Lomas: Breakthrough and Grand Designs, and producer wife Kate Fraser live close to the couple’s home on Auckland’s North Shore, and are regular babysitters. His mother Joss Ritchie takes an active hand too, but with her busy council job in Christchurch, where Ollie grew up, visits south add to little Nico’s domestic air miles.
The greatest adventure yet
For a couple soon to pack for three for their impending much longer flight, they have more immediate concerns.
“My biggest project at the moment is figuring out a birthday cake for Nico because I’ve not actually made one before,” laughs Kimberlee, chatting to the Woman’s Weekly just before his first birthday.
Nico is nearby in his high chair, happily munching avocado on rusks with the sort of enthusiasm that suggests whatever Mum whips up will go down a treat.
“When he wants something, he gets this look in his eye… this determination as he kind of figures out how he is going to get that thing,” Kimberlee says. “We love watching him grow and learn new things. He’s a little bit cheeky and a little bit funny, and he has the most gorgeous smile and personality. He’s a little light in the world.”
Adds Ollie, “No day is the same, but you know every day is great. You live in the moment and appreciate the little things.”
New horizons await
Once the family reaches Glasgow ahead of the Games opening, Ollie and born organiser Kimberlee face two full-on weeks, without grandparents. But the example of colleagues gives them confidence that they will cope.
“There are so many sports mums at Sky, so you see the juggle all the time,” Kimberlee shares. “Laura McGoldrick’s kids are a little bit older, then there’s Kirstie Stanway’s kids, Storm Purvis’s and Taylah Johnson’s.” There are also the rugby mums, most recently Michaela Brake.
“So it’s not like you feel isolated in this journey at all because actually there’s a whole tribe of women out there who are going through it at the same time and who understand. We’re so lucky because
Sky’s really supportive of it.
“When I’ve needed, Nico’s come to games with me. No one has blinked an eye, which I appreciate is hugely different from how things used to be, and I’m very, very grateful for it.”
Ollie says he and Kimberlee are also privileged to be in a position to relay the stories of our athletes back to the nation, making them intent on doing justice to competitors’ achievements in even getting to the Games, let alone medalling.
Eight years after striking up some friendly chat at a Black Sticks press conference, keeping in touch and uniting when Kimberlee returned from her stint as TVNZ’s Australian correspondent, the couple, who married in Taranaki in 2023, is embracing new life adventures.
A brief family holiday will follow their time in Glasgow.
“We googled best places to travel with a one-year-old in Europe in August,” laughs Ollie. “It’s Switzerland.”
Click here for who, what and where to watch the Commonwealth Games.
