Sporting Witness

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.

World Service,676 episodes

Episodes

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A Cold War hockey match
In 1961, after the Berlin wall went up, Scotland’s women’s hockey team faced West Germany
20 Dec 2025,9 mins
Afghanistan’s international ski scene
How the mountains of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan became a skiing hub
13 Dec 2025,10 mins
Nigeria at the first Women’s World Cup
In 1991, Nigeria became the first team from Africa to play at the FIFA Women’s World Cup
06 Dec 2025,10 mins
The Premier League’s first female photographer
Magi Haroun was the first female photographer in the Premier League
29 Nov 2025,10 mins
2005 Ashes: Pratt runs out Ponting
Substitute fielder Gary Pratt runs out Australian captain Ricky Ponting
22 Nov 2025,10 mins
Malice at the Palace
How a NBA game spiralled into one of the most infamous brawls in sport's history.
15 Nov 2025,9 mins
Colonel Gaddafi’s son plays in Italy’s top football league
Italian top-flight side Perugia made the unusual signing of Al-Saadi Gaddafi in 2003
08 Nov 2025,10 mins
The race that stops a nation
Michelle Payne describes being the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup
01 Nov 2025,9 mins
Sofia Mulanovich’s first world surfing championship win
Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich became the first South American to win a world surfing title
25 Oct 2025,9 mins
Mira Rai: Child soldier to sky runner
Mira Rai served in the Nepalese civil war as a teenager before becoming a sky runner
18 Oct 2025,10 mins
When Greg Louganis hit his head on a diving board
At the Seoul 1988 Olympics, the US diver hit his head while attempting a reverse 2½ pike
11 Oct 2025,9 mins
The first Esports tournament
In 1972, the first ever Esports tournament was held at California's Stanford University
04 Oct 2025,10 mins
Between two giants: Thrilla in Manila’s referee
Carlos Padilla on refereeing Ali v Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila fight 50 years ago
27 Sep 2025,10 mins
Second time around
German high jumper Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth on winning two Olympic golds 12 years apart
20 Sep 2025,9 mins
Bula Choudhury – India's record breaking swimmer
: In 2004 Bula Choudhury became the first woman to swim the straits of the seven seas
13 Sep 2025,9 mins
Oscar De La Hoya: ‘I knocked him down, he knocked me down’
WBC welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya's showdown against Ike Quartey from Ghana
06 Sep 2025,9 mins
The photo which exposed a goalkeeper's fake injury
In 1989, one photo caught Chile’s goalkeeper faking injury in a World Cup qualifier
30 Aug 2025,10 mins
Organising the first Women's Rugby World Cup
How four women organised the first Women's Rugby World Cup held in Britain in 1991
23 Aug 2025,10 mins
The referee who invented the red card
How a referee invented the red and yellow card system to caution and send off a player.
16 Aug 2025,9 mins
Shuttlecock scandal
The Olympic badminton match that should have been a classic, but caused a controversy
09 Aug 2025,10 mins
Jack Brabham: A champion in his own construction
Jack Brabham won the Formula 1 world title in 1966 in a car he built himself
02 Aug 2025,10 mins
The first Women's Euros
Between 1982 and 1984, UEFA held the first European Competition for Women's Football
26 Jul 2025,10 mins
Irish hurling legend Christy Ring
The day Irish hurling legend Christy Ring was honoured by his rivals.
19 Jul 2025,10 mins
West Germany 1990: The making of an iconic football shirt
How West Germany's 1990 football shirt was created and became a design classic
12 Jul 2025,10 mins
Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon
In July 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first African-American man to win the title
05 Jul 2025,10 mins
World Cup whisky
How a bet and a case of whisky changed an East German footballer's life forever
28 Jun 2025,9 mins
South Africa’s unifying Rugby World Cup win
In 1995, post-apartheid South Africa hosted, and won, the Rugby World Cup
21 Jun 2025,9 mins
Eric Murangwa Eugene: How football saved the goalie’s life
Eric Murangwa Eugene's life was saved when gunmen recognised him as a footballer
14 Jun 2025,10 mins
Goalie v Gull
How Eddy Treijtel killing a seagull by mistake with a goal kick became football folklore
07 Jun 2025,10 mins
Bayern Munich's Champions League redemption
In 2001 the Champions League final was contested by the two previously beaten finalists
31 May 2025,11 mins