The European Games, the mini Olympics on the continent, are now just days away. Team GB is sending 177 athletes, we've talked about and heard from many over the past few weeks. In this episode of the podcast we hear from two who have really different stories to tell - boxers Charley Davidson and Delicious Ore. They are forthcoming, honest, determined and concerned about the Olympic future of their sport. Things need to be sorted soon. As they do at GB Basketball - we discuss the dire predictions...
Jun 18, 2023•36 min•Season 2Ep. 14
It's been another one of those brilliant sporting weeks - history in Paris for Novak Djokovic and an earthquake in golf with the PGA tour doing a deal with the Saudis. Andy Murray's back winning again, British records being set on the athletics track in Paris... and why Paris is the focus in Poland at the European Games for Team GB Rugby 7s stars Lisa Thomson and Alex Davis... The pair join us to discuss all this Krakow 2023 - ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024 - which as we als...
Jun 12, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Charlotte Worthington is a superstar, a British Olympic champion, the first ever gold medalist in BMX freestyle, and nailed a full 360 degree jump during her triumph in Tokyo. But she's also told us she's struggled with her enjoyment of the sport since returning to action, and talks about Adam Peaty being an inspiration for speaking out about mental health challenges. But Worthington is now one of 177 Team GB athletes confirmed for the third European Games in Poland from June 21 to July 2. There...
Jun 05, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 12
In this episode we discuss, through various Olympic and Paralympic sports, whether sportsmanship is real or just an ideal? And with the footy season over, it's our favourite time of the year! We round up Cycling, Rowing, Tennis, Taekwondo, Judo, Canoe Sprint, Triathlon, Hockey, Athletics, Diving, Skateboard - just you're average summer weekend of sport 😉 And Michael and John discuss some amazing destinations we'd like to attend in our 'bucket list' of sport! All ahead of the Summer Games of Par...
May 29, 2023•36 min•Season 2Ep. 11
The BEAA Podcast - 100 days is the voice of Great Britain's elite athletes and in this episode you'll hear from new chair of the British Elite Athletes Association Dominic Mahony. He talks about his and the organisation's aim of providing more of a community, an elite athletes’ village in effect, as well as expert, independent guidance to all on sport's world class programme. We also hear about the support the BEAA can give ahead of Paris 2024 and beyond. This is a special edition of the podcast...
May 21, 2023•20 min•Season 2Ep. 10
The UK’s first international Sitting Volleyball event since London 2012 is taking place - and not only is there a chance to see the world's best players in action, you could have a go yourself! The ParaVolley Silver Nations League in Nottingham from 19-21 May 2023 - with British Volleyball stars in action as they target qualification for the Paralympics in Paris in 2024. In this special episode of Anything but Footy we profile the GB men and women competing in this exciting and unique sport, tha...
May 15, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 9
In the past year, all of us have been affected by rising food, energy and living costs, sports clubs and organisations too. These clubs provide vital physical and mental wellbeing to hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK every week. And in this special episode of Anything but Footy, with SPORTED, the grassroots sport charity we hear about the findings of it's latest 'Ring Sported Community Pulse' survey, the damage that's been done, any possible long term impact and how we could al...
May 11, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 8
It's not an Olympic sport but it's not Footy either! Michael loves a 17 day sporting event and has spent most of the past fortnight or so in Sheffield covering the World Snooker Championships. A boyhood dream recognised, and a history making tournament with Belgium's Luca Brecel winning the title and re-writing the history books. But is he the most famous Belgian since the story books of Hercule Poirot? In our News from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we also talk Para Tennis, Taekwondo, Athle...
May 02, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 7
From Marcel Hug's dominance to Sifan Hassan's comeback, the second fastest ever Marathon and the last 26.2 miles ever from Mo Farah. Despite the drizzle, this 2023 TCS London Marathon shone through with highlight, record, highlight and record! John and Michael are at the finish line in the Mall rounding up all the results - and hear from the all the elite winners - including David Weir, Sam Harrison and Emile Cairess the first Brits home! And as Mo confirm's his last race will be in September we...
Apr 23, 2023•30 min•Season 2Ep. 6
A treat this week - not one but two episodes of Anything but Footy! A bit like our special guests Jessica Gadirova - the 18 year old European Gymnastic champion with not one, not two but three gold medals in Turkey last week! She joins us in her 'free period' at school while John & Michael reveal what they used to do in theirs! We round up a table topping performance from the Brits in Turkey - plus latest Swimming, Judo, Athletics, Canoeing, Modern Pentathlon, Boxing, Cycling and we even tal...
Apr 20, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 5
This is Anything but Footy and a London Marathon 2023 special! We hear from the Event Director Hugh Brasher as the historic fundraising and world class race returns to its rightful home in April. We've anything you need to know if you're running it, supporting someone, or watching it on TV! 09:20 Elite Wheelchair start 09:30 Elite Women start 10:00 Elite Men start and Mass start It's an early start on Sunday - good luck to the thousands of runners! As it's Anything but Footy, we also have an Oly...
Apr 18, 2023•43 min•Season 2Ep. 4
It was an Easter treat of a weekend for sporting fans and 12 months on from their silver success in Beijing Winter Olympics, a gold medal to treasure for the men's Scottish Curling team! Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan are now World Curling Champions after an outstanding win in Ottawa - rounding off quite the Winter Sport season for Team GB! Michael brings you a full round up... In slightly warmer climbs (!!), well Ponds Forge in Sheffield, some great stories of succes...
Apr 10, 2023•29 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Everyone wants the war to end says Thomas Bach the International Olympic Committee President, as the IOC decides to wait to see what happens with international sport before deciding whether Russia and Belarus athletes can compete at Paris 2024 and Milano Cortino 2026. They would have to be neutral athletes, no teams, and no affiliation or support for Putin or the army. So what are the Olympic waiting for? To see whether like tennis, this stance can work in sport across the world during this summ...
Mar 31, 2023•35 min•Season 2Ep. 2
The great debate on whether athletes from Russia and Belarus could compete at next year's Paris Olympics continues, with the International Olympic Committee committing to a 'pathway' to include them as neutral competitors. It's happening in tennis, and likely to at Wimbledon this year too. But does that really work? Katherine Grainger told us recently she's unsure. And where does that leave Ukrainian athletes? Michael and John are back together for the latest episode of Anything but Footy - the ...
Mar 23, 2023•39 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Anything but Footy runs a series called Great British Bosses where we interview men and women involved in the running of sport in this country. It's the behind the scenes conversation of British Sport. We have had Chairs, CEOs, MDs, PDs, Head Coaches and this season guests have included Katherine Grainger (UK Sport), Greg Baker (Boccia UK), Helen Nicholls (British Equestrian) and Paul Buxton (GB Taekwondo). In this last episode of the current season, we discuss one of the biggest Olympic sports ...
Mar 16, 2023•30 min
Bigger than the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014! For the first time ever the World Cycling Championships are all coming together in one place, at one time, and showing off the beauty of the bike! Trudy Lindblade is the chief executive of the 2023 World Cycling Championships, in Glasgow and across Scotland from 3-13 August this summer. She tells us the multi cycling event is in affect 13 World Championships all at once, and it'll be held every 4 years in different countries and cities, why ...
Mar 13, 2023•37 min
This is Great British Bosses - the behind the scenes conversation of British sport - and a real frank discussion in this episode about how this country's second most played sport among the young, gets hardly any professional attention and support. It's something Steve Bucknall, the Head of Talent & Performance at Basketball England, has always wanted to change, and after guiding Team England to gold and silver success at last year's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 3x3, and further change...
Mar 06, 2023•31 min
Season 4 of Great British Bosses - the behind the scenes conversation of British sport - continues from Anything but Footy! With more than 20 years of experience in elite sport, Helen Nicholls is the relatively new Performance Director at British Equestrian. The former British windsurfer, joined the organisation in charge of taking Team GB and Paralympic GB riders and horses to Paris in 2024 a year ago, following several years as PD at the Boccia UK. She may have been a former rider herself when...
Feb 27, 2023•35 min
A very special episode of Great British Bosses from Anything but Footy - the Olympic and Paralympic podcast. For our 50th edition we're delighted to be joined by Dame Katherine Grainger - Chair of UK Sport – the organisation that is responsible for the high performance sports system in Great Britain and Northern Ireland (you'll have heard a lot about them over the previous 49 episodes!) In this episode, we talk about Katherine's role, the new UK sport strategy, London 2012, Paris 2024, athlete p...
Feb 13, 2023•40 min
David Pond is one of those unique Great British Bosses in sport in this country. He started off his working life teaching PE after studying at Loughborough at the same time as Lord Coe and with Sir Clive Woodward (who he's still on an 'old boys' WhatsApp group with). There was then more than two decades in the Royal Navy, followed by Consulting before running Great British Wheelchair Rugby from before 2012 right through to the Gold medal success at the delayed Tokyo Paralympics. And now's he's o...
Feb 06, 2023•38 min
If you thought last summer was good in England's second city with the Commonwealth Games - the countdown's underway for another multi sporting event! It's now 200 days til the IBSA World Games in Birmingham this summer. More than a thousand partially sighted or blind athletes competing in a dozen sports, with qualification for the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024 next summer up for grabs in three of the events - football, goalball and judo. In this episode of Great British Bosses, the podcast from...
Jan 30, 2023•30 min
For a sport that only started at the Olympics 23 years ago, Taekwondo has quickly become a firm favourite for the British fans and for Team GB and now Paralympics GB, after its Para debut in Tokyo. 5 medals at the delayed 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, three in Rio 4 years before that, Jade Jones' famous gold in London 2012 and Beijing 2008 was the setting for the first ever British medal thanks to the kicking talents of Sarah Stevenson. But how do you maintain that success? As generations chang...
Jan 23, 2023•33 min
Boccia* is the only Paralympic sport without a real Olympic counterpart and Paralympics GB has a strong record in it dating back to Sydney 2000. Now there's a new Performance Director in charge - Greg Baker the former Head Coach of Para Table Tennis - and with the Paris Games now next year - once again it's time to start focusing on who could book their place on the plane or train to France next summer. This is Great British Bosses from Anything but Footy - the podcast where we focus on the men ...
Jan 16, 2023•35 min
What do you call a group of Olympic & Paralympic podcasters? A gaggle? A school? Mascots? What about 'Keep the Anything but Footy Flame Alive'? We're delighted to team up with fellow fans of the Olympics and Paralympics Jill Jaracz and Alison Brown, who do what we do and discuss all things Olympic movement type things, but from across the Atlantic. In this episode, as well as finding out about our love of the Games, get the low-down on LA '28, talk legacy, athlete retirement, future Games an...
Dec 22, 2022•59 min
So much other sport going on at the moment, but you won't have seen or heard much about it due to the total domination of the Football World Cup. It's not even the biggest sporting event in the world for goodness sake - that's the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics according to latest polling. But could Qatar be a future destination of the Olympic rings? In our 'News from the Games' we also round up some of the other headlines you may have missed - from the Summer Games triathlon, swimming, ath...
Dec 05, 2022•28 min
The World Gymnastics Championships, the European Breaking champs, the Rugby League World Cup... Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesborough, Leeds, London... Some of the world class sporting events being put on in UK cities in recent weeks... Forget that Qatar thing for a second, and get into Anything but Footy as we talk gymnastics, rugby league, judo, swimming, Para-cycling, wheelchair tennis. Boxing and Breaking and with purse strings being tightened across the planet wonder what next for the Winte...
Nov 08, 2022•37 min
A special edition of Great British bosses to end the latest season of episodes - with the man delivering something in the UK that's never been done before in the world - the first ever men's, women's and wheelchair Rugby League World Cup! The trio of tournaments starting this Saturday October 15th in Newcastle, is being hosted across England - from Bolton to York, Leeds to London. It's been 7 years in the planning and you may have noticed the Rugby League World Cup 2021 is also a year late... Jo...
Oct 09, 2022•22 min
Bye bye Boxing? Hello again Russia? Max is back as are the Brits in Rowing and Cycling! And who's the real King or Queen of Scottish athletics? A summary of the 30 minute podcast in a couple of sentences, and John and Michael reunite to discuss the latest comings and goings in Olympic land! We've more on how the no change to Boxing's governing body probably means the end of the historic sport in the Olympics after Paris. The IOC is said to be 'manoeuvring' into a position for Russian athletes to...
Oct 02, 2022•37 min
If we were writing a headline we'd say Mike Sharrock swaps BP for the BPA! The chief executive of the British Paralympic Association spent 30 years in international business with the oil giant, but since January 2019 he's been in charge of the BPA. Working on partnerships with London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 seemed to ignite his sporting flame and with all the challenges he, the Para athletes and the organisation have faced in the last few years, he certainly needed it! This is Great British Bosses...
Sep 25, 2022•34 min
Channel 4 Sport is a force to be reckoned with after a series of high profile rights acquisitions. They recently started broadcasting England Men's football internationals to add to a portfolio which includes Rugby League, Formula 1 and the Paralympics. Kate Clayton is the Sports Partnership Lead at the channel and is also on the Board at GB Wheelchair Rugby. . She also spent four years as publicist to infamous Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. We find out about that role and how Channel 4 Sport is l...
Sep 19, 2022•31 min
