Not by the Playbook

We celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee by looking at the evolution of sport during her reign and some of the world’s most significant and iconic sporting moments of the last 70 years. We discuss the Queen’s influence on sport and what her legacy might be. Plus we head live to Epsom ahead of one of the Queen’s favourite sporting events, The Derby We catch up with New Zealand star Rosie Ell...

As Liverpool prepare to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris, we head back 40 years to the 1982 competition. Aston Villa ruled Europe that year, and on their return to Birmingham went on a tour to show fans the trophy. That's where the trouble started. Shari Vahl tells Caroline Barker about how the European Cup was stolen... and retrieved! Ahead of the Championship Play-off fina...

One of golf's most prestigious events, the USPGA, is taking place in Oklahoma. The tournament has come a little too early in the career of 14-year-old Ukrainian Lev Grinberg, but could his name one day be on the trophy? Last week Lev became the second youngest player to make the cut at a professional tournament. We hear from Lev and his dad Illya. It's been a big week for men's football. Jake Dani...

We preview the Men's and Women's FA Cup final taking place at Wembley this weekend. We'll speak to the BBC's Ian Dennis, get the full match day experience on board the Liverpool supporters coach and revisit some of the classic FA Cup team songs. Then on Sunday it's the women's final. The competition has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. This is only the seventh year in its more...

Ukrainian footballer Vova Kubrakov opens up about how football helps him cope with the war in his home country. He was part of a mixed charity game with teams made up of Portland Timbers and Thorns players that raised more than half a million dollars for UNICEF's relief efforts in Ukraine. We also hear from Valeriy Sushkevych, the President of Ukraine's Paralympic Committee who's told the BBC they...

As former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker starts his prison sentence for hiding more than 3 million dollars-worth of assets, we look back on his brilliant, but also troubled life. Olympic gold medal winning sports climber Janja Garnbret joins us to talk about a new film which followed her quest for gold in Tokyo and the physical and mental preparations and challenges she had to overcome on the way...

Professional table tennis player Wally Green opens up about he went from being a 13-year-old caught up in Brooklyn Gangs to a table tennis pro on a trip to North Korea for ping pong diplomacy. Big wave surfer Sebastian Steudtner tells us how he was brought in by Jurgen Klopp to help Liverpool’s players deal with stress ahead of their last Premier League title win, and explains how he’s trying to u...

Lesia Tsurenko discusses the guilt she feels about not being in Ukraine and the impact the conflict has had on her mental health. Tsurenko says she considered ending her playing career before a chat with Alex Dolgopolov made her see she could help Ukrainian’s by continuing to play and earn money to send home. Along with Elina Svitolina, Tsurenko has donated money to buy a tractor for the Army, whi...

Verna Volker – the founder of Native Women Running – says it acts as a safe space for Native women, who run for healing, ceremony and medicine. She believes a lot of the women are carrying historical trauma and running has become a way to grieve and heal. She has run previously to highlight the plight of Missing and murdered Indigenous women and says non-Native people don’t realise that Native Ame...

We reflect on history being made in the Women’s Champions League after a record crowd of 91,553 people attended the second-leg of Barcelona’s quarter-final against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou. Maz was at the game and we hear from fans, Ballon d’Or winner Alexis Putellas, and from the club about their vision for women’s football moving forward. Courtney Winfield-Hill tells us about her plans to rep...

Leonid Grigoriev tells us how he returned to his home city of Mariupol to rescue his parents this week. Grigoriev – who swims for Ukraine’s national team – describes the devastation brought about by the Russian Army and says his car was almost hit by a bomb during his rescue mission. He says residents of the city looked like they were ready to give up their lives and that he also helped evacuate a...

Oleksiej Zorin is an American Football player and team owner. His family are in Poland under the care of the team he plays for, while he is unable to reach players based in Mariupol, who play on the team he owns, after the city came under heavy attack from Russia. He admits he is scared for the players he can’t reach and grateful his team in Poland got his family out of Ukraine. He tells us about...

The vice president of Wisla Krakow, Maciej Bałaziński and Anna Mioduska, who is the chair of Legia Warsaw’s foundation, tell us how their clubs are helping people displaced by the conflict in Ukraine. Both clubs have been aiding the effort to collect supplies for Ukrainian refugees, while Wisla have also given sanctuary to the youth team players from Dynamo Kyiv. Legia have been providing football...

Ukrainian Olympic Swimmer and World Record holder Andrii Govorov tells us about getting his wife and young child out of the country just before Russia invaded. Govorov - who was born in Crimea – also gives us an insight into the Russian Psyche and believes people have been brainwashed to accept the conflict. He explains why he believes all Russian athletes should be banned from international compe...

We speak to the Ukrainian Tennis player Illya Marchenko who tells us that, for him, this is sadly all too familiar. His war started eight years ago when he was forced to flee from his home in Donetsk. He and his wife packed a bag and have never returned. Despite what Russia is doing as a country, Illya explains why he wouldn’t necessarily support a ban on Russian sportspeople competing internation...

We speak to a female athlete, who fled Afghanistan after the Taliban retook control of her country. She managed to leave on a flight with the help of paperwork, which she thought would lead to her starting a new life in Canada. That hasn’t proved to be the case and she’s currently living with other evacuees in eastern Europe. She tells us she believes she would have been killed if found by the Tal...

All the excitement and colour from LA ahead of the most watched annual sporting event anywhere in the world. We look at what the Super Bowl means to America through the eyes of three former NFL players. One who only got to the game once he retired, one who lost on the day but won a bigger prize and one who ended up a champion but paid an incredibly high price for his success. And all three have go...

We join our correspondent Alex Capstick live in Beijing with the Winter Olympics well underway. We also hear from Olympic skiing Gold medallists Lindsey Vonn and Picabo Street about their friendship and the new documentary Vonn has co-directed about Street’s life. Vonn discusses her first meeting with her idol as a 9 year old child, while Street opens up on the difficult issues in her personal lif...

On this week's Sportshour with Caroline Barker, we speak to the President of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee, Valeriy Sushkevych, about the tensions at the Russian border and how this is affecting the countries athletes ahead of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing. Plus, we’ll hear from Jack Jablonski who was an aspiring ice hockey player, who suffered a terrible spinal injury ending his chances....

Saudi Arabian women competed in the Dakar Rally for the first time in 2022, with Dania Akeel and Mashael al-Obaidan completing the race earlier this month. They join us to reflect on making history and discuss how competing in one of the world’s most gruelling automobile rally races has changed them. They also give their thoughts on whether they see themselves as inspirational figures for women in...

We speak to a refugee held in the Park Hotel about life as a detainee. 24-year-old Adnan Choopani left Iran to seek asylum nine years ago and has been held in a variety of Australian detention facilities ever since. He explains the impact living at the Park Hotel has had on his mental health and how he hopes the world doesn’t forget the residents now Novak Djokovic has left. Adnan is joined by Dav...

Ice Hockey fan Nadia Popovici tells us how she helped save the life of Vancouver Canucks assistant equipment manager Brian Hamilton after she spotted a cancerous mole on the back of his neck during a game between the Canucks and the Seattle Kraken. She warned him about the mole by banging on the plexiglass and typing a message on her phone. Popovici says she’s grateful Hamilton took her advice and...

A look back on some of the athletes we met at the Tokyo Games and look ahead to Beijing including Switzerland’s Jolanda Neff who won the cross-country mountain bike event, Spanish Paralympian Desirée Vila who was competing at her first Games and Georgie Cohen who will be representing Israel at the Winter Games in February, and honouring the legacy of her grandfather Maurice Cohen. Image: Tokyo 202...

We look back at some of the stories we covered and people we met in 2021 including Haley Carter the former assistant coach of the Afghan women's team and also a US Marine veteran. We hear from Janelly Farias, who was called "the Mexican Rapinoe" on social media for her willingness to bring to light the prejudiced faced by the LGBTQ+ community in Mexico. Nav Bhatia who was inducted into the NBA Hal...

UFC strawweight Kay Hansen opens up about how she discovered she had an eating disorder and how she believes it could be linked to the trauma she endured as a teenager. Hansen was sexually abused in her teens and says not eating and over training was her way of coping. Her issues around food came to a head when she was forced to pull out of a fight in March as her body was effectively shutting dow...