Any of the more macho elements in sport who think the new British Minister for Sport and Tourism is a soft touch because she is a woman are in for a shock.

Helen Grant is more than capable of fighting her corner, as she demonstrated during her upbringing as the only black kid on a council estate in Carlisle by taking up judo to help defend herself against racist abuse.

"It was in the sixties," she recalls. "For a while I was the only person there with a darker skin. There was prejudice, and bullying. But I dealt with it.

"I went into judo to defend myself thinking, 'well, if they see I'm good at it they won't pick a fight with this one'."

The message was duly absorbed and she did become good enough to be an under-16 champion for the north of England and southern Scotland. At school, she was captain of the school tennis and hockey teams, and represented Cumbria in hockey, tennis, athletics, and cross-country.

After studying law at the University of Hull, she went on to become a solicitor, an MP and now, at 52, a surprise appointment as Sports Minster following Hugh Robertson's elevation to the Foreign Ministry.

Helen Grant took up judo as a child to help defend herself against racial abuse



"A dream come true," is how she describes the summons to 10 Downing Street to insidethegames.

So why did the Prime Minister give her then job?

"You'll probably have to ask him but I know he was aware of my passion for sport because we have discussed it many times," Grant said. "And he obviously thought I would be a good advocate for it.

"My aspiration was always to be an Olympic judo champion but in the end I became a lawyer and got into politics. However, sport has never left me. It is very much in my DNA.

"It gave me time to think and insulated myself from the idiots I had to deal with when I was growing up at school. It was the thing that gave me self-confidence and self-esteem."

And this slim and vivacious married mother of two strapping sons - Ben, a Royal Marine commando and rugby-playing Joel, about to go to university - clearly has that in abundance.

Born in London to an English mother and Nigerian father, when her parents separated she grew up in a single-parent family as the only black resident on Carlisle's Raffles estate for much of that troubled early childhood where sport, she says, made her a winner.

Now she must win over sport itself. "Already I can see there is lots to do in sustaining the legacy of 2012 both for sport and the economy."

Helen Grant says it was sport that made her a winner




Naturally, the continuing advancement of women's sport is high on her agenda. "There's lots more to do. We need to shape sport to make it attractive to women, particularly young women."

She wants to see more women on governing bodies and in administrative positions, "though things do seem to be progressing there", she says.

"I still think there are chauvinistic attitudes, not just in football but a number of areas. We want people to compete fairly, to strive for equality. Sexism has got to be dealt with."

While she still plays tennis with husband Simon, swimming is not listed among her many athletic accomplishments. But she was thrown in at the deep end with footballer Jack Wilshire's "England for the English" controversy. It is one in which she declines to be immediately immersed, pointing out that she has barely got her feet under the Ministerial table in here airy office on the fourth floor of the Treasury building in Westminster, where the Department for Culture, Media and Sport now lodges.

"I'm not going to wade into that," Grant explains. "It's seems a matter for the FA and the England manager and I have yet to meet the governing bodies to discuss it. But what I will say is that I have a zero tolerance attitude towards any form of discrimination - racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia - whatever. Also all unsportsmanlike behaviour, like spitting, gouging, abuse of referees. Absolutely zero tolerance."

Unlike Robertson, who was a Minister of State, Grant will be a junior Minister, sharing her sports role with that of her existing equalities and portfolio, and tourism.

But she strongly refutes the suggestion that sport has been demoted. "What nonsense," she scoffs. "Sport is now more important than ever. It is critical to the welfare of this country. I believe he [David Cameron] has appointed me because he feels I'll be an advocate for it as a force for good."

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.