Sporting Witness

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.

Recent Episodes
  • Creating ‘HawkEye’ and goal line tech
    May 10, 2025 – 10:48
  • The Flying Mother and the first Giro D'Italia Femminile
    May 3, 2025 – 09:55
  • Kwame Nkruman-Acheampong: The Snow Leopard
    Apr 26, 2025 – 09:09
  • The woman who faked her Boston Marathon win
    Apr 19, 2025 – 10:03
  • Surfing the biggest waves in the world
    Apr 12, 2025 – 09:34
  • Minda Dentler - Ironman World Championship
    Apr 5, 2025 – 09:04
  • WWE’s youngest female champion
    Mar 29, 2025 – 09:53
  • Why I designed the prosthetic running leg
    Mar 22, 2025 – 10:03
  • Becoming the 60m fastest woman in the world
    Mar 15, 2025 – 09:10
  • Murderball: Inventing wheelchair rugby
    Mar 8, 2025 – 09:49
  • When Chelsea took on Tromsø in an Arctic blizzard
    Mar 1, 2025 – 09:15
  • Exploring the caves of the world's biggest iceberg
    Feb 22, 2025 – 09:07
  • The woman who sailed solo around the world
    Feb 15, 2025 – 10:09
  • The Super Bowl helmet catch
    Feb 8, 2025 – 10:01
  • George Best scores a double hat-trick
    Feb 1, 2025 – 10:01
  • How Fanny Blankers-Koen became the 'flying housewife’
    Jan 25, 2025 – 09:09
  • The Ice Mile
    Jan 18, 2025 – 09:11
  • Ron Grant: First man to run around Australia
    Jan 11, 2025 – 08:59
  • The ice hockey team sponsored by Colonel Gaddafi
    Jan 4, 2025 – 09:11
  • Maria Costello: the record-breaking female motorcyclist
    Dec 28, 2024 – 09:00
  • Germany’s first black national footballer
    Dec 21, 2024 – 09:16
  • Fighting Norway's boxing ban
    Dec 14, 2024 – 10:09
  • Puerto Rico upsets the USA in Olympic basketball
    Dec 7, 2024 – 08:58
  • Magnus Carlsen: 'Mozart of chess'
    Nov 30, 2024 – 09:59
  • The Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics
    Nov 23, 2024 – 09:00
  • Battle of the Surfaces
    Nov 16, 2024 – 09:54
  • First international for Netherlands women's football
    Nov 9, 2024 – 08:58
  • The football fans who built their own stadium
    Nov 2, 2024 – 08:59
  • Brojen Das: Bangladesh's Channel swimming champ
    Oct 26, 2024 – 09:08
  • Agnes Keleti: The world's oldest living Olympian
    Oct 19, 2024 – 09:03
  • The drone that started a riot
    Oct 12, 2024 – 08:59
  • The first African Cup of Champions
    Oct 5, 2024 – 09:00
  • Brian McKechnie: New Zealand's double international sportsman
    Sep 28, 2024 – 09:02
  • The Iron Ladies
    Sep 21, 2024 – 09:04
  • Formula E: The world’s first electric car championship
    Sep 14, 2024 – 10:03
  • The invention of Padel
    Sep 7, 2024 – 09:02
  • The Gambia's first Paralympic Games
    Aug 31, 2024 – 10:03
  • Winning gold at the first Paralympics
    Aug 24, 2024 – 08:59
  • The most successful Paralympian in history
    Aug 17, 2024 – 08:59
  • Winning Olympic gold in a borrowed boat
    Aug 10, 2024 – 09:13
  • Bringing breaking to the world stage
    Aug 3, 2024 – 09:03
  • Greek sprinters scandal at the Athens Olympics
    Jul 27, 2024 – 09:01
  • Cyprus's first Olympic medal
    Jul 19, 2024 – 09:02
  • Conchita Martinez: The woman who stopped Navratilova
    Jul 13, 2024 – 08:58
  • The murder of Andres Escobar
    Jul 6, 2024 – 09:55
  • The tennis champion who escaped the Nazis
    Jun 29, 2024 – 08:57
  • Muhammad Ali started MMA
    Jun 21, 2024 – 09:11
  • The last great days of the Soviet Union
    Jun 15, 2024 – 10:55
  • The forgotten Women's World Cup
    Jun 8, 2024 – 09:05
  • John Aldridge’s touchline temper at USA '94
    Jun 1, 2024 – 08:59
Recent Reviews
  • MiljaMarin
    Error
    It is wrong to refer to Yugoslavia's president Josip Broz Tito as a dictator.
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