Planet Sport

How do English Premier League football clubs celebrate Christmas? AFC Bournemouth chaplain Andy Rimmer tells us how the club is supporting the community at this festive time of year. Olympic 200m champion in 2004 and 2008, Veronica Campbell-Brown, tells us how she is spending this Christmas and former Premier League football referee Bob Hamer recalls a dramatic Boxing day fixture.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio the Refugee Olympic Team highlighted the plight of refugees around the world whilst providing a team through which elite sportsmen and women who are refugees themselves could compete on the highest stage. Planet Sport reporters Norman Brierley and Tom Ellis recall their time at the Rio Games meeting former women's marathon world record holder and Chef de Mission of the...

Planet Sport reporter Stuart Weir reveals his three top sporting highlights of 2016 and we hear from Leicester City midfielder Andy King, women's 100 metres hurdles world record holder Kendra Harrison and nine-times Olympic champion and sprint sensation, Usain Bolt.

In the week that Germany's Nico Rosberg won his first Formula One title we talk to former F1 driver Alex Ribeiro about the legacy of his Brazilian compatriot and three-times F1 champion Ayrton Senna 22 years after his death in San Marino. And we talk to former Brazilian professional footballer Johnson Tadeu, founder and facilitator of the Brazil Sports Coalition which helps people to discover fait...

We conclude our interview with former Fifa, Premier League and Football League referee, Bob Hamer. This week he tells us about the charity he founded after seeing extreme poverty beside the runway at Mumbai airport on his way back from officiating at a World Cup qualifier in New Zealand and he tells us what is involved being a match observer, the role he plays in football today assessing referees...

During his 50 years in football, Bob Hamer has been a Football League and Premier League referee and a Fifa Match Official. More recently he has been a match observer for the Football League, assessing the performance of the referees and their assistants. In the first part of our two-part interview Bob tells us why he became a referee in his early 20s and about some of the top players he refereed...

We talk to former South African international footballer Sdu Mthethwa about her pastoral work today as a mentor to athletes and as cricket makes a bid to enter the Olympics we hear from Australian cricketer Simon Katich and discuss the implications for the Olympics to add cricket to the bouquet of sports featured.

Estonian athlete and 1500 metres national record holder Tiidrek Nurme continues his story about his life, running and faith, from being jailed at the age of just 15 for criminal activities to rediscovering his love for running and becoming a double Olympian. He talks about his experience in 2008 in Beijing when he competed in the 1500m and this year's Olympics in Rio where he ran in marathon.

We talk to Estonia's national 1500m champion Tiidrek Nurme who overcame a life of crime as a teenager that saw him imprisoned at the age of just 15 to become a double Olympian. In 2008 he competed in the 1500m in Beijing and earlier this year he represented Estonia in the marathon at the Games in Rio. He tells us about his early life and how his life changed gradually but clearly for the better af...

Stuart Weir reports on the recent 'Sport in the Service of Humanity' conference hosted by the Vatican and we hear from one of the many sportspeople who attended, the former Juventus and Italy midfielder, Alessandro Del Piero. And in the light of recent high-profile misdemeanors involving top rugby players former Auckland and Samoa scrum-half, Tu Nu'uali'itia shares his thoughts on the responsibili...

Carina Horn holds the South African record for the women's 100 metres in a time of 11.06 seconds. The 27-year-old talks to us about her athletics career and the centrality of her Christian faith. And former world recorder in the women's marathon, Kenya's Tegla Loroupe, tells us about her Peace Foundation, set up in 2003 to bring warring communities in Kenya together and help orphans and refugees a...

Carl Dambman is a former Greco-Roman wrestler who represented the United States at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Since retiring from the sport for the past 30 years he has been a chaplain to athletes at the Summer and Winter Olympics. He talks to us about his work as chaplain and why he sees it as such an important role. And we find out about Fusion Community Festivals that take place around the...

We talk to Ghanaian-born British boxer Joshua Buatsi, two days after he won bronze in the light-heavyweight division at the recent Olympic Games in Rio. He tells us about the sacrifices he's made over the past four years to achieve his Olympic goal and the role that his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ plays in his life. And in football we discuss the unfolding English Premier League table and...

In the second and final part of our interview with Arthur White the British four-times world power-lifting champion tells us about the difference his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ has made to his life. After losing his wife, house and business to an addiction to cocaine he sought help and was able to kick the habit, eventually being reconciled to his wife and discovering an even deeper love...

Twenty years ago Englishman Arthur White was a power lifting champion. During his career he held 9 British titles, 6 European titles and 4 World titles. He was also a successful businessman with houses, cars and a loving family. But he lost it all through a drug addiction to cocaine. He ended up as a nightclub bouncer and an illegal debt collector who used violence to get people to pay the money t...

Jarryd Wallace is a hot favourite for a medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio. The 26-year-old from the USA competes in the T44 category for athletes with a lower limb disability in the 100m, 200m and 400m. In 2013 he won two gold medals and broke three world records at the IPC Athletics World Championships and in Rio he is looking for his first Olympic title. Jarryd spoke to Planet Sport reporter...

Dan Smith won his first gold medal for swimming in school competition at the age of 5. In his early teens he was compared to the great Australian swimmer, Ian Thorpe, after breaking several of his age records. The world was at his feet but in his late teens he turned his back on sport and took to a life of excessive drinking, drug abuse and crime and ended up living on the streets. In this intervi...

As the 2016 Games comes to and end and Rio hands over the Olympic baton to Tokyo we investigate the legacy that has been left for the Brazilian city. Planet Sport reporters Tom Ellis and Andy Bloss talk to residents of Curicica, a suburb of Rio, where homes were demolished to make way for the new Bus Rapid Transport route providing a fast transport system across the city. We hear from the Mayor of...

Olympic 400m champion and new world record holder Wayde van Niekerk talks to us about the secret of his success. Former 400m world record holder Michael Johnson shares his thoughts on the doping controversy afflicting Olympic sport and we hear from Tegla Loroupe, former women's marathon world record holder from Kenya about her role as leader of the Olympic Refugee Team in Rio.

With the Games in Rio well underway we talk to visitors outside Olympic Park and hear from our correspondent Tom Ellis in Rio about the atmosphere and highlights from the first week's events. And we talk to double Olympic 400m hurdles champion, Felix Sanchez from the Dominican Republic about his Olympic triumphs and the faith that is the foundation of his life.

As the 2016 Summer Olympics get underway in Rio we find out about life in the Games Village from Planet Sport reporter Stuart Weir who is in Rio this time to serve the Togo delegation as their Olympic attache. We also talk to two of the athletes competing in Rio: British rower Richard Chambers and South Africa's 400 metres hurdler, Wenda Nel.

We're at the Anniversary Games in London and meet the new women's 100m hurdles world record holder, Kendra Harrison. Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce talk about their hopes of retaining their Olympic titles in Rio and we hear from a Brazilian journalist about how the Host City is preparing for the Games against a background of security issues, the threat of the Zika virus and questions over...

This week's show has a distinct Olympics theme with the 2016 Games in Rio just two weeks away. We visit Ipanema Beach in Rio to find out about a popular sport played there which is now growing popularity elsewhere, called footvolley. Our series through the Games of the modern Olympic era continues as we reach the 2008 Games in Beijing and we meet the only athlete to beat the great Carl Lewis in an...

What's gone wrong with Zimbabwe cricket? Fortunes have plummeted since the glory days of the late 1990s when Zimbabwe beat South Africa and India on their way to finishing fifth in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. This year Zimbabwe have lost to Afghanistan in the Twenty20 World Cup and 3-0 in a ODI series at home to India. So what's gone wrong? We hear from the Chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, Tavengwa M...

As reigning Olympic 400 metres champion Sanya Richards-Ross announces her retirement we pay tribute to her remarkable career. Journalist Stuart Weir provides some insights from his meetings with her over the years and we hear from Sanya herself as she recalls her Olympic triumph in 2012 in London and reflects on the faith which has sustained her through success and disappointment. And we continue...