Sporting Witness Podcast
Eye-witness accounts from sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped sport through the eyes of the people who were there.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.
Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.
Episodes to download
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Ben Johnson
Thu 1 Sep 2022
Ben Johnson was disqualified 48 hours after winning the Olympic 100 metre final in 1988
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Coaching the world's best tennis players
Thu 25 Aug 2022
Tennis coach Rick Macci on training future world number ones Serena and Venus Williams
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The most controversial three seconds in basketball history
Thu 18 Aug 2022
The USSR faced the USA in the 1972 Olympic men's basketball final
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Sydney Olympics’ vault fault
Thu 11 Aug 2022
At the Olympics in 2000, a fault with gymnastics equipment changed the course of a final
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Nick Skelton's bid for gold
Thu 4 Aug 2022
British showjumper Nick Skelton's 33 year quest for an Olympic medal.
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The first Women's Euros
Thu 28 Jul 2022
Between 1982 and 1984, UEFA held the first European Competition for Women's Football
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Yohann Gene - The Tour de France's first black cyclist
Thu 21 Jul 2022
Yohann Gene from Guadeloupe made history by being the first black man to race in the Tour
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Britain's Golden Relay
Thu 14 Jul 2022
Britain's 4x100m relay team cause one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history in Athens
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Nadine Angerer: Germany’s penalty-saving heroine
Thu 7 Jul 2022
How Nadine Angerer became Germany's penalty saving heroine
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Jens Voigt: Riding the Tour De France on a child's bike
Thu 30 Jun 2022
The unusual solution that kept a cyclist in one of the world's greatest races
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The longest tennis match of all time
Thu 23 Jun 2022
John Isner and Nicolas Mahut battle it out at Wimbledon in the longest match of all time.
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Baseball's bionic man
Thu 16 Jun 2022
The revolutionary surgery that saved baseball pitcher Tommy John's elbow and career.
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Diving into the world's largest iceberg
Thu 9 Jun 2022
Canadian diver Jill Heinerth was the first woman to enter the caves of a giant iceberg
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Protesting against the US National Anthem
Thu 2 Jun 2022
NBA star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the American flag in protest in 1996
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The Miracle of Istanbul
Thu 26 May 2022
Liverpool's incredible comeback to win the Champions League final in 2005
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Ryneldi Becenti - Native American basketball hero
Thu 19 May 2022
How the first Native American to play in the NBA inspired her community in the 1990s
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The footballer trapped in Syria
Thu 12 May 2022
How Nigerian Olaniyi Gideon was caught up in the Civil War in Syria while at a local club
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Man City win their first Premier League
Thu 5 May 2022
Defender Micah Richards on the most exciting finish ever to the English football season.
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Jahangir Khan: The king of squash
Thu 21 Apr 2022
The legendary Pakistani player who went undefeated for five years in the 1980s
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Cricket in North Korea
Thu 14 Apr 2022
In 2008, a group of western cricketers took their sport to the Axis of Evil.
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The Mozart of Table Tennis
Thu 7 Apr 2022
Swedish ping pong player Jan-Ove Waldner is a legend in his own country - and in China.
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Tanya Streeter
Thu 31 Mar 2022
In 2002, free diver Tanya Streeter attempted to reach a record depth of 160m.
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The women cross-country skiers who fought to race
Thu 24 Mar 2022
How women won the right to compete in the hugely popular Vasaloppet event in Sweden
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Saving Fabrice Muamba
Thu 17 Mar 2022
The cardiologist who saved the Bolton footballer after he had a heart attack on the pitch
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Kelly Gallagher
Sat 12 Mar 2022
How the visually-impaired skier from Northern Ireland won Team GB's first Paralympic gold
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The first Winter Paralympic Games
Thu 3 Mar 2022
Two athletes from Finland and Britain remember the inaugural Winter Paralympics in 1976.
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The Queen of Paralympic Snowboarding
Sat 26 Feb 2022
Bibian Mentel-Spee campaigned for her event to be in the games, then won the first Gold.
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Dan Jansen - from tragedy to triumph
Thu 17 Feb 2022
The American speed-skater who overcame grief to win Olympic gold.
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Morten Andersen: The NFL Hall of Fame kicker
Thu 10 Feb 2022
How a Danish kid became a record-breaking kicker in American football
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Vonetta Flowers: The first black Winter Olympic champion
Thu 3 Feb 2022
How the American bobsledder made history at the 2002 games in Utah