Sporting Witness

In 2009, British 17-year-old Ben Greenhalgh won a reality TV show called Football's Next Star, earning him a six-month contract to play for Italian champions Inter Milan.

During his time in Milan, the club enjoyed the greatest season in its history - winning the treble of Serie A, the Coppa Italia, and the Champions League.

He trained alongside star players including Patrick Vieira, Samuel Eto'o and a young Mario Balotelli. But Gre...

In the 1990s, businessman Ramm Mylavaganam created a new way to analyse football matches, which would change how managers and coaches saw the game forever.

Whilst trying to sell some high-end massage chairs to Derby County, he found their assistant manager Steve McClaren watching hours of footage of opponents, trying to gain an advantage.

This gave him an idea – filming every minute of a match and then analysing the footage could...

In August 1961, the Soviet Union began building a wall between East and West Berlin.

Weeks after construction began, the Scotland international women’s hockey team were invited to play against West Germany.

They travelled by plane and coach, getting stopped at Checkpoint Charlie, before arriving for the match at the Olympic Hockey Stadium in West Berlin.

Although they didn’t win, Valerie Crombie has been speaking to Megan Jones abo...

How an international skiing scene developed in the mountains of Bamiyan province in 2011.

Long: In 2011, the rugged mountains of Bamiyan Province in central Afghanistan became the backdrop of something as unlikely as it was uplifting-an international ski scene.

As Bamiyan was then relatively safe for tourists, a new travel agency, supported by a development NGO, started offering holidays to skiers seeking a unique adventure.

A sk...

The Nigerian national women’s football team were the first African team to reach the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup Tournament in China in 1991.

In 2023 Justice Baidoo spoke to Nkiri Okosieme – who captained the hastily assembled squad – and hears how they overcame opposition to claim their tournament spot.

This programme is a Made in Manchester Production for the BBC World Service.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archi...

In 1986, Magi Haroun began her career in football photography. She would become the first female photographer in the Premier League in the 1990s.

She grew up with close connections to Manchester United. Her uncle was the club’s chairman from 1965 until 1980, and she had a good relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson during his tenure as manager.

She speaks to Tim O’Callaghan and tells him about embarking on a career in a male-dominated...

In the 2005 Ashes series in England, substitute fielder Gary Pratt grabbed the headlines when he ran out Australian captain Ricky Ponting in the fourth test. Ponting questioned England’s use of a substitute fielder. It was a pivotal moment which turned the game in England’s favour and they went on to lead the series 2-1. Gary Pratt tells Uma Doraiswamy how it all played out.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testi...

On 19 November 2004, a heated NBA game between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons spiralled into one of the most infamous brawls in sport's history. What began as a hard foul escalated into chaos as players clashed with fans in the stands, leaving a lasting mark on the league’s image.

Mark Boyle, a veteran radio broadcaster known as 'the voice of the Pacers’ was there that night. Speaking to Hunter Charlton, he recalls a lucky ...

In 2003, Italian top-flight side Perugia made an unusual signing: Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

It was seen as a publicity stunt by headline-hungry Perugia owner Luciano Gaucci, with Gaddafi making just one Serie A appearance, as a substitute in a win against Juventus in 2004.

But Gaddafi made a big impression off the field and was renowned for his playboy lifestyle and outrageous spending habits. ...

Ahead of Australia's most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup, we go back 10 years to when Michelle Payne was the first, and so far only, female jockey to win the title.

Michelle, the youngest of 10 children, came from a racing family with seven of her siblings becoming jockeys. Throughout her career, she suffered a series of serious injuries that nearly forced her to retire, but her perseverance paid off when she won the race in 2...

With both her parents and brothers surfing, it was natural that Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich got into the sport at the age of three. As a teenager she competed in the US Open surfing competition, where she made the quarter-finals.

But it was in 2004 when she made history by becoming the first South American woman to win the World Surfing Championship.

She tells Rachael Devine about the waves she had to ride to get the world title, and...

In 2015 Mira Rai took the international sky running scene by storm, winning gold medals in ultra-endurance running events ranging from 50-150 kilometres.

At first, little was known about this young competitor whose grit and determination were unparalleled. But behind her calm demeanour was a personal story which would shock the ultra-running world. She tells Hunter Charlton how she began life in a poor farming village before being r...

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 attempting a reverse 2½ pike.

It caused a gash to his head, with blood trickling down his head.

At the time, only he and his coach Ron O'Brien knew he was HIV positive.

In 2012 he spoke to Peter Bowes about that moment.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witn...

In October 1972, the first ever Esports tournament was held at California's Stanford University. Now a multi-billion dollar industry, thousands of people watch tournaments all around the world, but competitive video gaming was in its infancy in the early 70s.

Called the 'Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics', it was organised by a Rolling Stone magazine journalist who was documenting the early days of computer gaming.

Bruce Baumgart was a...

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 sweltering heat of the Philippines’ capital. The bout went down in history as one of the most brutal and dramatic in boxing.

Carlos Padilla, the match referee, tells Jay Behrouzi what it was like to watch the two heavyweight fighters push through exhaustion, and how he managed both corne...

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 gold medallist and one of West Germany’s most famous athletes. Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth had been a celebrity since surprising the athletics world by winning her first gold medal at the age of 16, 12 years earlier.

After suffering a decline in her career and achievements following that succes...

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 Seas.

Choudhury is a former Indian national swimming champion in the pool, who was inspired to switch to the ocean by a traditional Bengali folk tale.

Her challenge took her to five continents. She says that one of her hardest swims was in the cold waters of the English Channel.

In 20...

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 fought.

One match changed all that – a Las Vegas showdown with Ike Quartey, from Ghana. “My strategy was solely to make it a dogfight, to make it entertaining, to shut up the doubters all over the world,” said La Hoya.

The Mexican American champ relives the bout with Mark Wilberforce.

E...

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 was thrown onto the pitch, appearing to seriously injure Chile's goalkeeper Roberto Rojas.

Football photographer Ricardo Alfieri was watching with 129 other photographers.

He was the only one who captured the moment the flare landed - behind Rojas.

Days later it emerged the goalkeeper had hidd...