\n It was during her years as one of the faces of BBC Scotland that McLeod began to realise that many of Scotland\u2019s best sporting stories were not being given the spotlight they deserve. And it\u2019s this conviction that led her to develop her new initiative, \u2018Capital Conversations\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n In collaboration with Edinburgh<\/a> University, the monthly Capital Conversations event takes place in front of a live audience and aims to showcase some of Scotland\u2019s most successful, but often unheralded, athletes and will McLeod hopes, go some way to increasing the appreciation of some of Scotland\u2019s greatest-ever athletes.\n<\/p>\n \n \n \u201cI’ve interviewed literally thousands of people over the years, and the athletes I speak to from these smaller sports are incredible, inspiring, motivational, funny, hard-working, intelligent and eloquent.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cFootballers and football managers can be quite suspicious of the media whereas working with athletes from different sports is just so much more enjoyable for me because they so often give amazing interviews, and that’s why I’ve gone in this direction with Capital Conversations.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n There\u2019s been two Capital Conversation events so far, with the first a rugby special which featured Scotland legend, Chris Paterson, referee, Hollie Davidson plus Scotland internationalists, Matthew Currie and Harry Paterson while the second event was a Team Scotland special which featured World, Olympic, Paralympic, European and Commonwealth medallists in the shape of Eilidh Doyle, Hannah Miley, Libby Clegg and Kirsty Gilmour.\n<\/p>\n \n Both evenings have, says McLeod, been extremely well-received by the audience in attendance and this is down to giving the athletes the time and space to speak freely.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cI believe there really is an appetite for this kind of event in Scotland,\u201d says McLeod.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cYou don’t need to be an athletics geek, or a cycling geek, or whatever, because this is not about the ins and outs of a particular sport – rather, these are people’s life stories and because it’s an audience of like-minded people, it’s a very safe space for the athletes so they really open up.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThe athletes feel able to speak about things they might not speak about otherwise and so it makes for a fascinating evening.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n \n And while she\u2019d never say no to any of Scotland\u2019s household names, it\u2019s some of the less well-known champions she\u2019d love to give a platform to.\n<\/p>\nMcLeod interviewing Yared Nuguse trackside at Paris 2024 (Image: .) \u201cGrowing up, I loved watching all sports, so when I became a sports journalist, I considered all the different sports. When I started with the BBC in 1995, though, I was shocked at quite how much the focus was on men’s football,\u201d she says.\n<\/p>\n
McLeod and Femke Bol from The Netherlands (Image: .) McLeod does, unsurprisingly, have a wish list of athletes she\u2019d like as future guests.\n<\/p>\n