Bizarre French law restricts Clare Balding and Gabby Logan’s BBC Olympic coverage

Strict laws in France will stop presenters Gabby Logan and Clare Balding from leading coverage of both morning and evening sessions during the Paris Olympics this summer.

The BBC duo will be restricted by the French working time directive, which stipulates that workers in the country must have a minimum of 11 hours between shifts. Athletics events are due to start at 9am local time and run late into the evening.

Logan and Balding will therefore head up prime-time evening sessions during the Games, leaving Jeanette Kwakye, JJ Chalmers and Hazel Irvine to take care of the morning and afternoon shows. Broadcasters found to be bending the rules could be stopped from working by French authorities.

"Because of the French working directive, we are not allowed to do the morning session and the evening session," Logan explained. "They are really strict about it apparently. It’s not just a kind of box-ticking exercise. It’s quite a change for all of us because we are used to these really early sessions in the morning."

She continued: "We are all having to work to those rules within the BBC. We know the French work to live. It just means we split the day up slightly differently.

"Jeannette is doing that portion of the day in the studio, which means that she will be able to cover off the morning athletics stories, and we will be doing all the evening at the stadium.

"It’s always much better to be in situ for me as a sports presenter. Once I’ve watched the athletics it means I will be able to keep my eye across more sports during the day which is exciting."

Morning track and field sessions during the course of the Olympics will show heats, the men's marathon, the women's marathon and the 20km walk. Every other track and field final will be shown during the evening sessions.

Logan or Balding will be joined by a star-studded punditry team at the Stade de France including Jessica Ennis-Hill, former Heptathlon star Denise Lewis and four-time gold medal winner Michael Johnson.

A highlights show at 10.40pm (BST) every evening will be led by Mark Chapman and Isa Guha on BBC One. The Paris Olympics opening ceremony is due to take place on Friday, July 26, with the BBC's fully-fledged sporting coverage getting underway the following day.