The Sporting Almanac Podcast

Winter Olympics VII - Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan

Winter Olympics Series Episode VII - Tonya Harding and Nancy KerriganFrom the dawn of sport, competitors have bent, stretched and downright circumvented the rules in order to gain an advantage over their opposition. Usually, this is in the form of gamesmanship and rule breaking on the field or drug taking and bribing off it. Rarely in sport are there occasions where one competitor is accused of orchestrating violence against another, but on January 6th 1994 that happened, just as the USA's best figure skaters prepared to go head-to-head with only two spots for the 1994 Winter Olympics available to them.The victim was Nancy Kerrigan, the reigning US champion and 1992 Olympic Bronze Medallist. The perpetrators were hired by the then husband of Tonya Harding, the 1991 US Champion aiming for redemption having finished fourth in the Albertville Olympics of '92. Harding's involvement has been debated for years, she took a plea deal to accept knowledge after the fact but has denied knowing in advance, but those around her had a different story.It's as big a scandal as the Winter Olympics has produced, and testament and proof that wherever there is a line to cross in sport, if someone wants it too much then they may just be prepared to cross.

Winter Olympics VI - Eddie the Eagle

Winter Olympics Series Episode VI - Eddie the EagleMichael David Edwards was an unlikely Olympic Ski Jumper, to say the least. Extremely far-sighted, a little on the heavy side and, most devastating of all to his chances in the event, British.But Eddie, as he was dubbed by school friends, was not a man to take no for an answer. His story is not one of success, no podium, no records (British ones aside) - but he became as famous an Olympian as anyone else in Calgary 1988, and captured, to us, what the Olympics is truly about.His presence at the games was not universally appreciated. Criticised as an "Olympic tourist" by some, and as a clown by those bastions of fair play East Germany, he lent his name to new sets of rules that prevented him and other hard working enthusiasts like him from having a realistic chance of qualifying again. But nothing anyone said or can do can remove one undeniable fact about Eddie - that he is an Olympian, and a legend of the games at that.Eddie flies like an Eagle:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UAwQ0pe460Music in the intro is from https://www.FesliyanStudios.com

Winter Olympics V - Steven Bradbury

Winter Olympics Series Episode V - Steven BradburyFor almost his entire career, it felt like if Steven Bradbury didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.Collisions, crashes, missed opportunities and truly horrific injuries, if there was any athlete at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics who had earned a bit of good fortune, it was Bradbury. And after fate had beaten him down time and time again, it took an extraordinary set of circumstances for his luck to balance out in the most astonishing of endings to the 1000m short-track speed skating event.This is his story, downs upon downs before one huge up, an Australian legend, an unquestionable hero too as more recent event would show. This is, put simply, one of the greatest Olympic stories ever.Steven Bradbury's Golden Moment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he03dVkhLTM

Winter Olympics IV - Shaun White and Half-Pipe Snowboarding

Winter Olympics Series Episode IV - Shaun White and Half-Pipe SnowboardingIn the fourth episode of our ten-part Winter Olympics series we take a look at an Olympic and X-Games legend, Shaun White. Three Olympic gold medals in snowboarding alongside fifteen X-Games golds across snowboarding and skateboarding tell their own story, but White’s impact on the half-pipe goes beyond medal counts.From a childhood spent chasing winter in California resort car parks to redefining what was physically possible on a snowboard, Shaun White helped drag half-pipe snowboarding into the mainstream and the Olympic big time.We take a look at the next generation too with Chloe Kim, whose style and competitive mentality represent the sport’s modern era and the standards now expected at Olympic level.Shaun White's final run in Pyeongchang 2018:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he03dVkhLTM

Winter Olympics III - The Miracle on Ice

Winter Olympics Series Episode III - The Miracle on IceAs hard as it might be for British ice hockey fans to grasp, there actually is a more famous ice hockey shock than the Brits upsetting the dominant Canadians in 1936 (twice).At Lake Placid in 1980, a team of amateur college players with an average age of just 21 took on the juggernaut that was the Soviet Union national team, ostensibly amateurs too but in reality full-time players with nominal jobs provided by the state allowing maximum training and preparation for the Olympic Games.It should have been one sided, as the two teams pre-tournament exhibition match was when the Soviet's defeated the young American team 10-3. But sport, as sport does from time to time, had other ideas.Do you believe in miracles?Final minute of the match with Al Michaels' legendary call:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ6itnbs7Yg