Sporting Witness
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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...
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When Greg Louganis hit his head on a diving board
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, in South Korea, Greg Louganis hit his head on the springboard.
It was during the preliminary rounds while he was at...
The first Esports tournament
In October 1972, the first ever Esports tournament was held at California's Stanford University. Now a multi-billion dollar industry, thousands of peo...
Between two giants: Thrilla in Manila’s referee
On October 1 1975, the third and final fight between bitter rivals Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, known as the Thrilla in Manila, took place in the swe...
Second time around
At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the final of the women’s high jump came down to two world record holders. One of them was already an Olympic gol...
Bula Choudhury – India's record breaking swimmer
In 2004, the Indian long-distance swimmer Bula Choudhury became the first woman to complete the challenge of crossing straits of the world’s Seven Sea...
Oscar De La Hoya: ‘I knocked him down, he knocked me down’
In 1999, reigning WBC welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya - the “golden boy” of boxing – was facing criticism over the quality of the opponents he...
The photo which exposed a goalkeeper's fake injury
In 1989, Chile faced Brazil in a crucial World Cup qualifying match at the iconic Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
During the game, a flare w...
Organising the first Women's Rugby World Cup
In 1991, English players wanted the first Women's Rugby World Cup to be close to home because of travel costs. With little help from the sport's gove...
The referee who invented the red card
It was during the 1966 World Cup match between England and Argentina that one of England’s leading professional referees, Ken Aston, had an idea that...
Shuttlecock scandal
At the London 2012 Olympics, a women’s doubles badminton match between China and South Korea caused controversy when the four players were disqualifie...
Jack Brabham: A champion in his own construction
Australian driver Jack Brabham was a pioneer in the 1960s, winning an Formula 1 world title in1966 in a car he built himself – a remarkable feat that...
The first Women's Euros
Between 1982 and 1984, UEFA held the first European Competition for Women's Football.
Sixteen teams battled it out across Europe.
The fin...
Irish hurling legend Christy Ring
Christy Ring was one of Ireland’s greatest hurling players. His career spanned three decades and he achieved many accolades including eight All-Irelan...
West Germany 1990: The making of an iconic football shirt
In July 1990, West Germany won the World Cup for the third time, beating Argentina 1-0 in Rome. The shirt the victorious players were wearing that nig...
Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon
It's been fifty years since Arthur Ashe beat defending champion and fellow American Jimmy Connors to become the first African-American man to win Wimb...
World Cup whisky
In 1974, East Germany beat West Germany in a World Cup match in Hamburg. Afterwards, on a flight, the West German Finance Minister, Hans Apel, found h...
South Africa’s unifying Rugby World Cup win
In 1995, post-apartheid South Africa hosted, and won, the Rugby World Cup. It was a hugely unifying moment for the country.
In 2013, Rob Bonnet...
Eric Murangwa Eugene: How football saved the goalie’s life
In 1994, as the genocide in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority unfolded, goalkeeper Eric Murangwa Eugene’s life was in danger. Being a Tutsi, Eric had...
Goalie v Gull
Dutch goalkeeper Eddy Treijtel played for Rotterdam giants, Feyenoord, more than 300 times. But one of his most talked about moments happened during a...
Bayern Munich's Champions League redemption
Bayern Munich were minutes away from winning the Champions League in 1999, before two late Manchester United goals. In 2001, they had a chance at rede...
Revolutionising sumo: The Mongolian influence
In 2000, Mongolian wrestlers began to transform the traditional Japanese sport of sumo, introducing innovative techniques and reshaping the competitiv...
The 5-19 football riot in China in 1985
In May 1985 Hong Kong inflicted an unexpected footballing defeat on their neighbours and rivals China in a World Cup qualifying game in Beijing.
Creating Hawk-Eye and goal-line tech
In 2000, keen cricketer Paul Hawkins wanted to turn his passion into innovation when he created the technology we now know as Hawk-Eye and goal-line t...
The Flying Mother and the first Giro D'Italia Femminile
The story of the longest consistently run cycling grand tour for women. Now known as the Giro Rosa, the Giro D'Italia Femminile was first raced in 198...
Kwame Nkruman-Acheampong: The Snow Leopard
In 2003, Kwame Nkruman-Acheampong put skis on for the first time. Seven years later, he was competing in slalom at the Vancouver Olympics, the first G...
The woman who faked her Boston Marathon win
In 1980, Rosie Ruiz was crowned the female winner of the Boston Marathon.
But the Cuban runner was not known in marathon circles and her victory...
Surfing the biggest waves in the world
The story of how the legendary surfer, Garrett McNamara, pioneered riding the colossal 100ft waves at Nazaré on the Portuguese coast.
At Nazaré...
Minda Dentler - Ironman World Championship
On 12 October 2013, American Minda Dentler became the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the super-endurance Ironman World Championship race,...
WWE’s youngest female champion
In 2014, English wrestler Saraya-Jade Bevis became the youngest female champion in WWE history.
Her life story – growing up in in a wrestling fa...
Why I designed the prosthetic running leg
When sport enthusiast Van Phillips lost his foot in a water-skiing accident, he decided to design a prosthetic leg that allowed him to keep running.
Becoming the 60m fastest woman in the world
At 60m, Nelli Cooman is a former indoor world record holder, running 7:00 seconds in 1986. It was the first time that indoor times were considered off...
Murderball: Inventing wheelchair rugby
In 1976, a group of friends invented a game at a rehab hospital in Canada, which they called "murderball". It was debuted at the World Wheelchair Game...
When Chelsea took on Tromsø in an Arctic blizzard
In the 1997 European Cup Winners’ Cup, FA Cup champions Chelsea played part-timers Tromsø at home – high in the Arctic north of Norway.
The mat...
Exploring the caves of the world's biggest iceberg
In 2000, a Canadian diver became the first person to explore the underwater caves of a giant iceberg.
Jill Heinerth was already renowned for her...
The woman who sailed solo around the world
In 1978, Naomi James became the first woman to sail single-handedly around the world via Cape Horn.
At the time, Naomi had had only six weeks of...
The Super Bowl helmet catch
In the final minutes of Super Bowl 42, the trailing New York Giants pulled off a move later described as “an insult to physics and Albert Einstein”. <...
George Best scores a double hat-trick
On 7 February 1970, footballing legend George Best returned from a month-long ban to score six goals in one game.
The striker wanted to prove th...
How Fanny Blankers-Koen became the 'flying housewife’
At the 1948 Olympics, one Dutch athlete showed that being a housewife and mother was no obstacle to Olympic glory.
Fanny Blankers-Koen won gold...
The Ice Mile
In 2009, Ram Barkai, a swimmer from Cape Town, in South Africa, broke the world record for the longest swim in freezing cold water.
He complete...
Ron Grant: First man to run around Australia
In 1983, the ultra-runner Ron Grant took on an epic challenge - to became the first person to run around Australia.
The 13,383 kilometre jog to...