On 4th June 2024, I presented my talk Raising the bar: representing women in sport as an audiovisual translator at the ITI Conference in Edinburgh.
The theme of the ITI Conference was New world, new work and it explored ways in which the translation and interpreting profession can find ways to keep up with the challenging world we work in, as well as discussing the technological changes accelerated by developments in AI.
Aimed at practitioners within the area of translation and subtitling, as well as those who are looking to expand their expertise, I explored the joys and challenges of translating and subtitling for semi-live sports with a focus on representing women in football.
I discussed the career and educational paths I chose and how these directed me towards the field of translating and subtitling for sports events.
I delved into the audiovisual translator’s toolkit, looking at a combination of:
- Human translation
- Automatic speech recognition (ASR)
- Interlingual respeaking
- Machine translation (MT) – does this still have a role?
I reviewed whether ASR could assist in quickly and effectively transcribing dialogue using examples of interviews with football players and coaches alongside the key challenges that semi-live sports can present.
Having recently joined an association called Women in Football and participated in the Women in Football Be Inspired Conference, I shared key findings on the growth of the women’s game and linked this to how this could influence and increase career opportunities for translators, subtitlers, interpreters and proofreaders alike.
I linked the importance of the passion we have in our profession to work within the domain of sports and how this can positively influence creativity, quality, assist in meeting highly time-sensitive deadlines and connect players to an international audience.
I explored our role to translate for high-profile women’s sports events, allowing the message from women athletes to be brought to the fore, to enable an understanding of the needs, aspirations and challenges of women and girls, inspiring development and change within the sports industry.
It was an absolute honour and joy to present my talk and participate in what was a wonderful, inspiring, thought-provoking, restorative, engaging and energising event. Needless to say, I’m already looking forward to the next ITI Conference in 2026.
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