Lee McKenzie facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lee McKenzie
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McKenzie at Brands Hatch in 2011
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| Born | 1 December 1977 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist, presenter |
| Employer | BBC, Channel 4 |
| Known for | Motorsport journalism |
| Parent(s) | Bob McKenzie |
Lee McKenzie (born 1 December 1977) is a famous journalist and TV presenter. She reports and helps present Channel 4's Formula 1 races. She also presents the W Series and Channel 4 Rugby.
Lee works on many different sports for the BBC and Channel 4. These include tennis, rugby, and horse riding. She also covers big events like the Olympics and Paralympic Games. Before this, she worked for the BBC's F1 coverage, Sky Sports, and Sky Sports News. Lee's father, Bob McKenzie, was also a sports journalist for the Daily Express for 35 years.
Lee McKenzie's TV Career
Lee McKenzie has presented shows for many TV channels, including ITV. She even helped launch a horse racing channel called At the Races. She also presented Lookaround for Border Television. There, she covered important news stories, like the Lockerbie Trial. Lee started her journalism career when she was just 15 years old.
In 2007, Lee won the Jim Clark Memorial Award. This award is given for important contributions to motorsport. Lee has always loved motorsport and many other sports. She has presented several shows on ITV, Channel 4, and Sky Sports. These include Speed Sunday and the British Superbike Championship (BSB). In 2006, she traveled over 150,000 miles (240,000 km) for her work. That's like going around the world five times! She covered both Formula One and the A1 Grand Prix.
Lee has reported on many major sports events. These include the Rugby World Cup and Wimbledon. She has also covered the Derby horse race, Netball, and Football. She presented news for At the Races and the 6 o'clock news. Lee also appeared in a TV advert for Nokia. She has hosted award ceremonies for Formula One and other events. She presented for Sony PlayStation and the F1 Regent Street display. This event had 300,000 people watching! Famous racers Nigel Mansell and Carl Fogarty asked her to host their magazine launch. She was also an editor and writer for their magazine.
Working with the BBC
From 2009 to 2015, Lee McKenzie was a pit lane reporter for the BBC's Formula One coverage. She was also the main presenter for Inside F1 on BBC News. In October 2010, she was the lead presenter for the BBC's F1 show at the Japanese Grand Prix. This happened while Jake Humphrey was presenting the Commonwealth Games. She also presented the Canadian, German, and Hungarian Grands Prix in 2012. This was when Jake Humphrey was busy with Euro 2012 and the 2012 Olympic Games. This was a big moment because it was the first time a woman was the main F1 anchor on British TV.
Lee started presenting on BBC Inspire in April 2014. The BBC later lost the F1 rights to Channel 4. But Lee continued to work for the BBC. She presented and reported on many events. These include the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics, and the Winter Olympics. She also covered Wimbledon, The Olympia Horse Show, and horse riding events. She reported on the 6 Nations, the Women's 6 Nations Championships, and the Rugby Union Autumn Internationals.
Since 2021, Lee has often interviewed winning players right after their matches at Wimbledon. She does this on Centre Court, in front of the crowd. This is different from the usual way of doing interviews off-court. Players and fans really like this, including Nick Kyrgios. She talked about this on the Fuelling Around Podcast. She said Nick respected her for giving him space before the interview.
Lee also joined a discussion about the future of motorsport. She talked with Jason Plato and David Vitty about whether Formula E could become as popular as F1. Lee explained that she loves all forms of motorsport. She watches Formula E and knows the teams and drivers. But she still finds it hard to get as excited about it as a Formula 1 race. She hopes her feelings will change in the future.
Moving to Channel 4
On March 8, 2016, it was announced that Lee McKenzie would join Channel 4's F1 coverage. This happened after the BBC decided not to broadcast live F1 on TV anymore. She still reports on races, just like she did for the BBC. She also presents F1 Meets.. (also called Lee Meets) and practice sessions. She was Channel 4's main presenter for the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix and 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In June 2016, it was announced that she would present the highlights of the FIA World Endurance Championship for Channel 4. Lee was also the main anchor and reporter for the Paralympics Breakfast show for the Rio Games. In 2017, she missed some F1 races because she was part of Channel 4's teams covering the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 and 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.
Lee also presented highlights from the Winter Paralympic Games from London. She was one of the main presenters for Winter Paralympics Today and Winter Paralympics Highlights. In 2018, Lee co-presented the Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. She also became Channel 4's main presenter for Rugby Union. This included Wales mid-year Internationals and the European Rugby Champions Cup. For the 2021 Paralympics, Lee was part of Channel 4's small team reporting from the site due to the coronavirus pandemic.
She will also be part of Channel 4's team for the 2024 Summer Paralympics. She will be their lead commentator for horse riding events.
Racing Career
Lee McKenzie also competes as an international co-driver in the World Rally Championship. She started after ITV challenged her to train and become a World Rally Championship co-driver in just three months. She earned her international license and even won her class at the 2004 Wales Rally GB. Since then, Lee has competed in the Norwegian Rally Championship for the X-Power MG ZR. Lee also owns and runs a company that helps manage drivers. This company works with drivers from GP2 to World Rally.
