In this episode, Georgie welcomes James Vowles, Team Principal of Williams Racing and a seasoned Formula One strategist with decades of experience at the highest level of motorsport. From his early days on the pit wall to leading one of the most iconic teams in F1 history, James shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career and leadership style. James reflects the moments that shaped his early career, including receiving rejection letters from ALL 11 F1 teams and how those experiences change...
Jul 01, 2025•50 min
In this exclusive episode recorded in the clubhouse at Wimbledon, Georgie sits down with Debbie Jevans, the first female chair of the All England Club, to explore what it really takes to deliver one of the world’s most iconic sporting events. Debbie reveals how far in advance the team plans for the Championships and the importance of testing every element before day one. From 50,000 flowers to rain-proof scheduling, it's a masterclass in precision and preparation. Debbie talks candidly about the...
Jun 24, 2025•22 min
Ed Chamberlin is the face of horse racing on ITV, the man who shepherded Gary Neville into TV and also a cancer survivor. On this week's podcast, Georgie catches up with her old Sky Sports News co-presenter, Ed, to talk about: * Why his first attempts at presenting all tanked * The death threats he faced at Sky Sports * Gary Neville's relentless work ethic and how it changed his own approach * How he would never have walked away from the biggest job at Sky Sports if it wasn't for the cancer batt...
Jun 17, 2025•42 min
British tennis star Katie Boulter is heading into Wimbledon with serious momentum — a chance for a 'three-peat' win in Nottingham and a showdown with Emma Raducanu for top Brit billing. In this week’s episode, Katie lets Georgie in on the behind-the-scenes realities of preparing for the biggest tournament of the year, what she’s learned from her power-couple fiancé, Alex de Minaur, and how the tragic news of a double cancer diagnosis in her family forced her to reassess her priorities. She share...
Jun 10, 2025•47 min
Jamie Chadwick is one of motor racing’s most decorated female drivers, having won races and titles everywhere she’s gone. Jamie discusses her incredible experiences over the last decade, the pros and cons of being a woman in modern-day motorsport, what she’s learned from her recent time in Indy NXT, when she thinks a female driver will break into Formula One, how she’s preparing for the legendary Le Mans 24 hours and why she’s more passionate about encouraging more girls to try motorsport than i...
Jun 03, 2025•37 min
Hayley McQueen is a sports broadcaster, a leading anchor on Sky Sports News, and the co-host of the Not Just Football podcast with Kelly Cates and Christine Lampard. She is also the daughter of the Manchester United and Scotland defender, Gordon McQueen, who died in 2023 from vascular dementia and pneumonia. Hayley explains her family’s battle to discover if Gordon’s death was linked to his profession, the decision to donate his brain for medical research, the struggle to find closure after his ...
May 27, 2025•44 min
Setbacks are an inevitable part of life, so what tools are most effective in getting us back on our feet and, perhaps, even stronger than we were before? Annalie Howling is a performance coach who works with leaders in business, elite sport and the Armed Forces, and who has personal experience in recovering from life’s challenges. She explains how a back to basics approach can help, the role of radical self-belief, why helping others can transform your own problems and the importance of finding ...
May 20, 2025•11 min
Georgie welcomes her former Sky Sports screen husband, and now Soccer Saturday host, Simon Thomas, into the Performance People studio. Simon opens up about his journey through sports broadcasting, revealing the truth behind his big break on Blue Peter, explaining the personal challenges of overcoming anxiety and the pressures of live television, how the sudden death of his wife, Gemma, left him utterly broken and he shares the shaping forces that helped him rebuild his life again. He discusses h...
May 13, 2025•52 min
Northampton Saints, England and now Lions-elect fly-half, Fin Smith, is one of rugby’s hottest emerging stars. In this wide-ranging chat about his career and ethos, he explains why his biggest low at Worcester taught him to take nothing for granted, why winning gives you extra drive, why the Six Nations surprised him, how he’s learning about leadership and what it’s like having a certain Jonny Wilkinson as a coach and mentor. Fin also imagines what it would be like to put his own Lions jersey ne...
May 06, 2025•41 min
What are the daily and weekly habits that build a life of high performance? Top performance coach to elite sport, military and business professionals, Chris Tombs, breaks down the habits, routines and mindset shifts that drive high performance in any field. From optimising sleep to integrating movement, Chris shares the daily principles that anyone can use to raise their game. Discover why consistency beats intensity, how to eat for energy and how to apply lessons from elite sport to everyday li...
Apr 29, 2025•13 min
Georgie reunites with her old Sky Sports News co-anchor David Jones, who now hosts Sky Sports' flagship football coverage on Super Sunday and Monday Night Football alongside pundits including Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher and Jamie Redknapp. David discusses his big break at Sky, the pressure and buzz of live TV, why he prefers asking questions to answering them and how presenting live football with a panel of pundits can feel like hosting a dinner party. We love performance, which is ...
Apr 22, 2025•45 min
What can we learn from how athletes approach sleep to improve how we feel and perform every day? Dr Peter Tierney is a performance coach and sports scientist who has worked with Leinster rugby, Chelsea FC, Lulu Lemon and The FA. Working with elite athletes, he has seen the power of optimising sleep to maximise performance. In this episode, he describes his SLEEP checklist for improving your sleep environment, why regularity matters, the role of nutrition, why sleep trackers are like Google Maps ...
Apr 15, 2025•15 min
Rugby world cup winner Mike Tindall takes us inside that famous 2003 final, when England beat Australia with a Jonny Wilkinson drop-goal in extra time. Mike looks back at what made that team so special; the characters, camaraderie and leadership that made the difference and how he’s never been in an environment like it since. Now a podcast host himself on ‘The Good, The Bad and The Rugby’, he also shares his views on the British and Irish Lions tour, the rise of superstar women’s rugby player Il...
Apr 08, 2025•56 min
One of Britain’s most successful downhill skiers, Chemmy Alcott, shares her journey to four Winter Olympics and five top-10 World Cup finishes, including becoming the first Brit to win a World Cup downhill run in 2008 in Solden. In this episode of Performance People, she takes us inside the mental battles and brutal injuries that make up the life of a downhill racer, where euphoric success and crushing failure are only a ski edge apart. Learn what it takes to push through adversity, build mental...
Apr 01, 2025•40 min
Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University, an ainslie + ainslie advisor, and a world-leading expert on the emerging science behind our bodyclock and the fundamental role it plays in everything we do. He explains how our circadian rhythm works, the role of light and how to change our relationship with sleep for the better. Taking action to get back into our natural rhythm is fundamental to our health, happiness and performance. You can also watch episodes on YouTu...
Mar 25, 2025•14 min
Dr Tommy Wood is a neuroscientist, a performance coach and – his words – an elite professional nerd. He’s also Hintsa’s head scientist for motorsport. Formula 1 drivers operate at the peak of physical and cognitive performance. Tommy describes the key lessons we can take from how F1 drivers train to push our own limits, and why it could hold the secret to holding off cognitive decline as we get older. Tommy hosts his own podcast ‘Better Brain Fitness’ with Dr Josh Turknett. You can also watch ep...
Mar 18, 2025•16 min
Broadcaster Natalie Pinkham has been on the Formula 1 rollercoaster for over 13 years as a presenter and reporter. She reflects on her experiences on the road, friendships made and the lessons she has taken from an innovation sport into life outside. She also reflects on her experiences working in a Romanian orphanage, her sleep issues and her take on what promises to be a box office season ahead. Given Nat also went to school with Georgie, there’s no hiding place. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...
Mar 11, 2025•46 min
In the first episode in our relaunched ainslie + ainslie Performance People podcast, trailblazing sports presenter and new Match Of The Day host, Gabby Logan, reflects on her life’s defining moment, the death of her younger brother Daniel, a hugely talented footballer who collapsed in the garden whilst playing football with his Dad and younger brother aged just 15. Gabby talks about the impact on her family, how it shaped her outlook as a young adult, why grief never goes away and the importance...
Mar 04, 2025•42 min
In our first ever live episode, Ben Ainslie and Hannah Mills joined Georgie for a Performance People special in collaboration with Ned Talks, recorded in The Parlour room at The Ned in central London. The panel looked back at the America's Cup in Barcelona last year, ahead to this year's Sail GP season and revealed a few of the performance secrets that have racked up six Olympic gold medals between them, including how they handle nerves, how they juggle the single-mindedness of sport with family...
Feb 25, 2025•38 min
As we head towards our 100th episode, we've been revisiting some of our favourite performance insights from previous guests. This week, sleep and recovery specialist Anna West goes through some of the small changes we can make to optimise our sleep - from how to use our circadian rhythms, how to nap for better performance and why the factors affecting the quality of our night's sleep can start as soon as we wake up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 18, 2025•20 min
As we head towards our 100th episode, we've been revisiting some of our favourite performance insights from previous guests. This week, trainer Matt Roberts is on a mission to help us take ownership of our health and fitness as we get older. Whatever age you are now, his advice can help you increase your ‘healthspan’ - the period in which we are physically active and healthy. We cover the role of data, what nutrition essentials to focus on, the importance of changing our self-image where fitness...
Feb 11, 2025•25 min
As we head towards our 100th episode, we've been revisiting some of our favourite performance insights from previous guests. This week, it's Dr Megan Rossi on why gut health is so important to our daily performance. We cover the importance of the gut in our overall health, why stress and gut health are intrinsically linked, the growing research on food additives and the ways we can improve our daily habits in this important area. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 04, 2025•21 min
As we head towards our 100th episode, we've been revisiting some of our favourite performance insights from previous guests. In this one, it's Tim Henman's unique advice on handling pressure. In such a gladiatorial sport as tennis, and as a Brit playing at Wimbledon with the whole country expecting you to win, Tim definitely knows what pressure feels like. Yet if anything, it brought the best out in him and he always looked the calmest man in the arena. Tim shares how he handled these situations...
Jan 28, 2025•13 min
Steve Magness is a performance coach to athletes and CEOs, a running expert who has coached Olympians, and an author whose latest book, ‘Win The Inside Game: How to Move From Surviving to Thriving’, explores how high performers can transform their lives by learning to let go of the traditional outcome-based view of success. Steve discusses how constant striving led to burnout in his own life, why doing hard things is the best way to build resilience and self-belief, that joy is proven to be a pe...
Jan 21, 2025•33 min
Martin Keown is one of the Premier League’s most formidable defenders, a leader in Arsene Wenger’s most successful Arsenal side that went on to go unbeaten in the famous ‘Invincibles’ season of 2003/4, in what would be his last season at Arsenal aged nearly 38. Now an insightful pundit, and author of his recent memoir ‘On the Edge’, Martin talks candidly and entertainingly about what made him tick, the coaches that influenced him, the players that impressed him the most and the techniques and li...
Jan 14, 2025•34 min
Geraint Thomas is one of Britain’s most popular and successful cyclists, a Tour de France winner and double Olympic gold medalist who’s also known as a team man willing to give everything for the cause. Speaking direct from the massage table and in reflective mood, the man everyone calls ‘G’ looks back on the career-defining moment when he realised he could make the switch from Tour de France support man to yellow jersey contender in his own right. He discusses what it took mentally, physically ...
Jan 07, 2025•33 min
Jess Thom is Team GB’s lead psychologist, a sports and performance specialist who helps elite athletes to fulfil their potential, on and off the field. Jess shares some of the key mental strategies she uses to help her athletes excel, many of which can be applied to anyone looking to improve their everyday performance. You’ll hear Jess explain how to handle your inner critic, when and how visualisation can be most useful, how to handle nerves and fear and why ‘what-if’ planning builds resilience...
Dec 31, 2024•34 min
It’s been a big 12 months on Performance People and we thought we’d close it out the year with a selection of clips from some of our favourite episodes, many of which were recorded out in in Barcelona, where Ben Ainslie and his INEOS Britannia team were attempting to fulfil their ‘moment in time’ and bring the oldest trophy in sport back to Britain for the first time. We were joined by some stellar guests in our recording studio out there, including Lewis Hamilton, Ben Ainslie, Gary Neville, Geo...
Dec 24, 2024•13 min
As Liverpool’s Director of Research for over a decade, Ian Graham was at the heart of the data revolution in football, and his approach helped Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, the team he also supports, to win the Premier League and Champions League in his time there. Ian shares the stories and insights that helped them to win - why Brendan Rodgers left partly because he couldn’t get on board with the new approach, how the experience of Liverpool’s owners in American sport allowed data to thrive, the p...
Dec 17, 2024•43 min
Tom Beahon is the co-founder of sportswear label Castore, which in less than a decade has grown in to a major global challenger brand, and can be seen on athletes and teams including Andy Murray, Red Bull Racing, Newcastle United and the England cricket team. Growing up, all Tom ever wanted to be was a pro footballer, but that particular dream ended when he was let go by Tranmere Rovers as a 19-year-old. It was this crushing disappointment that fuelled the fire for what came next. He made the de...
Dec 10, 2024•37 min
