Not by the Playbook

Erin Matson reflects on leading the North Carolina Tar Heels field hockey team to the NCAA national championship in her first year as head coach. The 23-year-old had previously won four titles as a player and tells us about their celebrations, being compared to Michael Jordan and proving the doubters wrong. Sierra Leonean sprinter Hafsatu Kamara discusses representation and being a role model. She...

Sweden rugby union captain Amanda Swartz tells us about growing up as a competitive figure skater and why she decided to switch sports. The Leicester Tigers player is keen to change perceptions of female rugby players and combines playing for the club, with working in their ticket office. Will Greenwood and his wife Caro discuss the pain of losing a child and the work they do to support research i...

Taehoon “Andy” Ki, tells us how he fell in love with Scunthorpe United after discovering them when playing Fifa Online 3 and about his recent trip to watch the English non-league side play. Ki made the 14 hour journey to Glanford Park in October amidst fears it could be the club’s final ever home game. He also discusses his extensive football shirt collection, reveals who his footballing hero is a...

Jamie MoCrazy tells us how she’s rebuilt her life and become an advocate for survivors of brain injury after almost being killed in a skiing accident. MoCrazy was seriously injured when attempting a trick at freestyle skiing’s World Tour Finals in Canada in 2015. She has since returned to the mountain to get married and is back skiing. Professional mixed martial artist and former footballer Aaron...

Chuck Goldstein tells us how a 5G connected football helmet is helping him communicate with his deaf quarterback in a way which was unthinkable before. Goldstein is head coach of a team of deaf and hard of hearing players at Gallaudet University and he believes the technology could reduce potential injuries and allow deaf players to potentially make a career in the sport. Ciara McCormack explains...

Tom Willis was born without arms and recently completed a 15-year journey to throw out a ceremonial pitch at all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums across the USA. He discusses how he pitches a baseball, the inspiration for his Pitch for National Awareness tour and how changing perceptions of people with disabilities is important to him. Tom’s philosophy is "I want people to focus on what I can do,...

India versus Pakistan is one of the biggest fixtures in world sport, but what is it that makes this rivalry so significant? Sportshour’s Shabnam Younus-Jewell hears from both sides during a discussion exploring the sporting, political, religious and cultural impact on cricket’s fiercest fixture. Joining Shabnam for is "Cricket with an Accent" podcast host and Indian Saqib Ali with regular contribu...

India versus Pakistan is one of the biggest fixtures in world sport, but what is it that makes this rivalry so significant? Sportshour’s Shabnam Younus-Jewell hears from both sides during a discussion exploring the sporting, political, religious and cultural impact on cricket’s fiercest fixture. Joining Shabnam for is "Cricket with an Accent" podcast host and Indian Saqib Ali with regular contribu...

Rudie van Vuuren holds a unique double. He is the only man to play in a Rugby World Cup and a Cricket World Cup when he represented Namibia in both competitions in 2003. As the two competition play out in 2023 He's been recalling the good and the bad of the tournaments he played in exactly 20 years ago Photo: (L) Rudie van Vuuren taking part in the 2003 Cricket World Cup for Namibia (R) Rudie van...

Canadian goalkeeper Rylee Foster discusses signing for Wellington Phoenix two years after a near-fatal car accident left her with seven fractured bones in her neck. Doctors feared she would never play football again and for a time she had to wear a “halo” device. Foster believes she’s a braver person for all she has been through and tells us about her recovery and the significance of her 10:16 tat...

Zimbabwean UFC fighter Themba Gorimbo tells Sportshour’s Caroline Barker how his story of struggle led Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to buy him a house. As a 16-year-old, Gorimbo became a self-confessed diamond thief in the dangerous fields of Marange following the death of both of his parents. He then moved to South Africa and took up mixed martial arts before landing a contract with the UFC. Facing...

England played Scotland this week to celebrate the 150th anniversary of football's oldest international fixture. As is tradition when England play away, sections of Hampden Park in Glasgow were adorned with the flag of St George. For the diehard fans they're a display of patriotism, but for artist Corbin Shaw they're the basis of his work. Instead of displaying the names of English football teams,...

The Rugby World Cup is underway. From when William Webb Ellis first picked up and ran with a football in 1823 and the sport of Rugby was born, to now, and the playing for the trophy in his name. Alix Popham proudly represented Wales at two World Cups, including the last time it was held in France. Undoubtedly the pinnacle of any sporting career with memories to last a life time. Sadly not for Alix...

It was John Lennon who said "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans!" and that's certainly true for Olympic gold medal winning Triathlete Jess Learmonth. Jess had her sights firmly set on retaining the title she won in Tokyo when Paris rolls around next year, but then an unexpected and wonderful thing happened. She became pregnant! Her due date is in just two weeks time,...

We're at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest catching up on the latest action. Plus, the Women's World Cup has undoubtedly spurred a new generation of fans to the game. Street corners, parks and any where a game can be played is now almost as likely to be filled with youngsters wearing shirts with Carmano, Kerr or Bronze on the back of their shirts as Ronaldo, Messi or Kane. But up until...

We preview the Women's World Cup final between England and Spain and review the tournament as a whole. Former Italian international goalkeeper Arianna Criscione, who told us before the tournament she wanted to see plenty of shock results and a narrowing of the gap between the best and the rest, certainly got what she wanted. But what else caught her eye and what room for improvement is still there...

The World Track Cycling Championships have been taking place in Glasgow, and the home crowd have had plenty to cheer. Success included Neah Evans, and her partner Elinor Barker, crowned world champions in the Madison, a team event as much about tactics as strength and speed. A crash in the race threatened to derail everything, but was Neah's previous experience as a veterinarian surgeon the differ...

It’s a Sportshour special with Caroline Barker at the Netball World Cup in Cape Town. It’s the first time the tournament has been held in Africa and we’ll hear from former Proteas players Zanele Mdodana and Vanes-Mari du Toit about the impact of hosting the event for South Africa. We’ll also hear from Uganda’s Peace Proscovia about how the game lifted her and her family out of poverty. It must be...

As the Women's World Cup continues we look at the drama behind the French women's national football team have been through this past couple of years. We get a potted history of this unsettling period for 'Le Blues' from author Professor Lindsay Krasnoff This week the UN said this month is on course to be the world's hottest on record... and whilst Southern Europe is suffering with wild fires, cata...

We meet some of the character, on and off the field, as the Women's World Cup finally gets underway. What does it take to win a stage of the Tour de France, and could anyone do it?! I think we all know the answer to that, but it hasn't stopped author James Witts. James' new book "Riding with the Rocketmen" is all about his attempt to ride a single stage of the tour, despite being "45 years old wit...

This weekend will see the world's most famous Grand Slam crown it's champions but what's it really like to take part in such a momentous occasion? The All England Club has opened a new entrance for the players which sees them head to the dressing rooms and eventually on to centre court  we're given an exclusive tour by the tournament director Jamie Baker. And once you have walked you from the entr...

We're at Wimbledon hearing about how The Ukrainian tennis project is helping one young player realise her Wimbledon dream after fleeing from her war torn home. Plus we are given a tour of the picturesque ground of the All England Club head gardener Martyn Falconer. Plus, while the biggest stars in tennis are on the court at Wimbledon, Rufus, an American Harris hawk, is there every day to keep an e...

On this week’s Sportshour, we’re joined by a woman with a claim for having the strongest arm in Africa. Grace Mintah works as a police officer in Ghana but she also happens to be a three-time champion at the African Arm-Wrestling Championship. She tells Caroline Barker about switching from athletics to arm-wrestling, her dream of becoming a “superstar”, and one day winning an Olympic gold medal. T...

On this week’s Sportshour, former British athlete Hannah England joins us after having her voice cloned by artificial intelligence. You can hear “Hannah-bot” delivering updates from the European Team Athletics Championships in Poland on YouTube, with tennis’ Wimbledon set to follow suit over the next few weeks. Is a new era of sports commentary being ushered in? This week is World Refugee Week and...

It’s one of the most historic and fearsome sporting rivalries – The Ashes as World Champions Australia up against a reborn England team – There is no contest quite like it. With the series underway, have you ever wondered why this cricketing duel between Australia and England is called The Ashes? For that we go back to a Test Match at the Oval in South London in 1882 when Australia recorded their...