Proud mum Moira Cross, who lives in London, helped as a games maker at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and says the city has become one of her favourite places.
Speaking to BBC Radio WM, she said: “I pop to Birmingham every so often to go clubbing, I go to Solihull or Digbeth.”
Cross, who was born in 1930, has also worked at the Olympics, in London 2012, where she was also a dancer at the Paralympics, Rio 2016 and Paris 2024. Her son Martin also won gold at Los Angeles 1984, in the triumphant rowing team led by Sir Steve Redgrave.
It was the death of her husband in 2010 that inspired Cross to get involved, as a means of combatting loneliness.
At the 2012 Paralympics, her dancing was with Rio de Janeiro during the eight-minute flag handover.
Danced to Simple Minds
”Then I went to Rio for six weeks, I was in the opening and closing ceremonies there,” Cross explained.
”It gives me something exciting to look forward to, something to plan for, something that is on the horizon.”
Cross said she loves any type of music and loves to dance, going to Zumba four times a week.
During Glasgow’s 2026 Commonwealth Games, Simple Minds were among the acts performing in the closing ceremony at The Hydro.
You can do it’
She said she hopes to return there as a volunteer in 2027, for the Invictus Games, after the city won the bid to host, beating off competition from Washington DC.
”Thousands of people apply, so it doesn’t mean I have a chance, but I will certainly put my name down,” she added.
The event, staged every two years, sees injured military personnel and veterans from around the world compete in a range of sports.
The Birmingham event will be the first time the event has come to the UK since the Duke of Sussex staged the inaugural tournament in London in 2014.
Cross has also put her name down for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics, “because it will be 40 years since I was last there watching Martin win the gold medal”.
”This time I am hoping to be in it, and I will be 98,” she added.
Speaking about being a volunteer to BBC Sport, she added “If I can do it, so can you”.
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