Podcast appearances and mentions of shari vahl

It was John Lennon who said "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans!" and that's certainly true for Olympic gold medal winning Triathlete Jess Learmonth. Jess had her sights firmly set on retaining the title she won in Tokyo when Paris rolls around next year, but then an unexpected and wonderful thing happened. She became pregnant! Her due date is in just two weeks time, but that doesn't mean she isn't still eyeing up an Olympic berth in ParisOn Thursday the new NFL season kicks off. One man sure to be watching will be Marc Buoniconti. He comes from American football royalty. His dad Nick was a Hall of Famer, a star of the unbeaten Dolphins team of 1972, still the only side to go undefeated throughout an entire season. Marc was all set to carve out his own NFL career when at the age of just 19 he suffered a spinal chord injury whilst playing at college; in that moment his life changed forever. Marc has been telling Sportshour's Shari Vahl about his tragic and yet remarkably uplifting storyImagine scuba diving without a breathing apparatus, diving down hundreds of feet on a single breath and holding it for as long as three and a half minutes. That's freediving and extreme sport that's growing in popularity and interest. But it's also one of the most dangerous. Alessia Zecchini is the world record holder and was recently subject of a documentary " The Deepest Breath " So what drives her to pursue such a dangerous and deadly pursuit? Sportshour's Stefano Montali has been delving deep : TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 27: Jessica Learmonth of Team Great Britain reacts during the Women's Individual Triathlon on day four of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Odaiba Marine Park on July 27, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

As Liverpool prepare to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris, we head back 40 years to the 1982 competition. Aston Villa ruled Europe that year, and on their return to Birmingham went on a tour to show fans the trophy. That's where the trouble started. Shari Vahl tells Caroline Barker about how the European Cup was stolen... and retrieved! Ahead of the Championship Play-off final at Wembley, we hear from footballer Dominic Ball. Playing in the Premier League is the ultimate goal for most footballers, one that drives them from an early age. In that regard Dominic Ball is not that unusual, nor any of his five close friends, all of whom started their footballing journeys together. Dom has got closer than most, for the past three years he's played for Queen's Park Rangers in the Championship, and his goal is still in reach, but what about his friends? Dominic has written "From Winning Teams to Broken Dreams" a book which not only tells that story, but is a guide to those who want to follow the same dream, and what challenges and pitfalls lie in await. Sunday sees the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 with 33 drivers, 200 oval shaped laps and 500 hundred miles. One woman who knows exactly what it requires to take on the challenge of Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Sarah Fisher. Sarah is not only the fastest woman in Indy 500 history, she is a former team owner and this year will be back on the track as the pace car driver. (Photo: A banner of the Champions League trophy in front of Aston Villa fans prior to kick off of the Aston Villa v Crystal Palace match at Villa Park, 15 May, 2022, England. Credit: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Christians in the UK are facing a huge crisis of faith, the numbers of people who say they are churchgoers is falling and the church is worried. Shari Vahl meets the Anglicans harnessing the power of sport to try and reconnect people with a faith many had chosen to forget. Churches in Norwich, a city in the east of England are challenging people’s ideas of what ‘a church’ is, setting up the Sports Factory to use football to bring people, particularly young men, to God. Shari meets 24 year old Ian at the regular Monday night football, men his age are the most likely to turn their back on conventional Sunday services. He says it was the sport that brought him together with other Christians who enjoy sport, and that allowed him to feel his version of faith, rather than having it imposed by the church. The Church of England is spending spend nearly two million pounds training special sports ministers, they admit it’s a gamble, but with many churches closing across the country, it’s a gamble that needs to work. Image: A football during an English Premier League match (Credit: Richard Calver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Over 3,000 women watched the Iranian national team beat Cambodia at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran after they were officially allowed to attend a football match for the first time. Women had been banned from attending men's sporting events in the country since the 1980s but after pressure from the sports world governing body FIFA and campaigners like Maryam Shojaei change has happened. But is enough being done? We hear from fans who attended and speak to Amnesty International about what more can be done. World Mental Health Day was marked this week and 25 year old American basketball player Imani McGee Stafford opened up to us about her story. She is six foot seven inches tall and pursued a career in basketball but life was not always this rosy. She tells Shari Vahl all. The Super League Grand Final takes place with Saint Helen's facing Salford in Manchester to win the sports biggest prize in domestic rugby. But we speak to a team who are hoping to be there next year. Toronto Wolfpack have just been promoted and their Chief Executive stops by to tell us about rugby in Canada and how this sport can grow in their country. Also in the programme we head live to Vienna to find out if Eliud Kipchoge has become the first person to run a marathon under two hours and travel to Huddersfield Town in England to hear about a new app which they are using to scout new footballing talent. Photo: Iranian Women's fans cheer during the FIFA World Cup Qualifier match between Iran and Cambodia (Getty Images)

We remember Sahar Khodayari, a passionate supporter of the Iranian football team. Sahar fatally set herself alight in Tehran after her trial for attempting to enter a football stadium, disguised as a man, was postponed. Women in Iran have been stopped from going to stadiums to watch men’s sporting events since the 1980s. This caused a huge outpouring of emotion on social media using the hashtag "blue girl " - a reference to the colours of her favourite team Esteqlal. Maryam Shojaee is the sister of the national team captain Masoud. She's been campaigning tirelessly for the rule to be changed as she has been explaining to Shari. Back in February, we spoke to the Jamaican distance runner Kemoy Campbell. Kemoy collapsed while competing at a meeting in New York. He was told by doctors that he actually died on the track. When we spoke to him then, he still hoped to continue his career. But seven months on, doctors have now instructed him to retire from the sport. Shari Vahl caught up with him again this week and he told us how painful it was to give up on his dream of competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It's billed as the pinnacle of women's golf. Every two years, the top players from Europe and the United States take to the greens for the Solheim Cup. This weekend, the US are aiming to make it a hat-trick of titles at Gleneagles in Scotland. 80,000 tickets have been sold across the three days - a record for the sport in this country. What does it take to win such an iconic event? Hear from American golfer Brittany Lincicome, who has won the event four times. We also hear from Olympic sailor Hannah Mills, who explains why she is campaigning against plastic use in sport, and Paralympic swimming star Mallory Weggerman, who tells us she was close to quitting after suffering a freak injury back in 2014. Picture: Banner arguing to allow women into stadiums in Iran (Credit: Getty Images)

Cecil Wright has played with the likes of Sir Viv Richards and Sir Gary Sobers, he has taken over 7000 wickets over 60 years but on Saturday, the 85 year old will play his final game for his village side. Shari Vahl has been to meet him. Manchester United begin life in the top flight of English women's football with the start of a new Super League season. Who better to start against than local rivals Manchester City? And where better to start than the Etihad Stadium? It's being used for a WSL game for the very first time. Sportshour speaks to Baroness Sue Campbell - Director of Women's Football for the FA about why this weekend is so significant. We're just three weeks away from the start of the World Athletics Championships in Doha. Nia Ali of the United States is one of the favourites for gold in the 100 m hurdles. She won her first global title at the World Indoor championships in 2014 after which she took time away from the sport to start a family. She tells is her story. Sepsis is known as the silent killer. The life threatening condition occurs when the body's response to infection is to destroy its own tissues and organs. . Corinne Hutton was diagnosed with the condition in 2013. To safe her life doctors had to amputate both her hands and legs. So taking up climbing is not the reaction to such a life changing condition you might expect. Picture - Cecil Wright (Credit - BBC Sport)

With the Women’s World Cup underway in France, Shari Vahl is joined by the BBC's Sarah Mulkerrins and Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, sports writer, historian and author as we look at what will make this a successful tournament. Plus we hear from Spanish defender Celia Jiménez Delgado who has big ambitions away from football, she aims to become an aerospace engineer when she retires. We also spend time with Banyana Banyana, the South African's national team. Plus we meet the Toronto Raptors biggest fan, and no it's not Drake. Plus former Boston Bruin Nathan Dempsey on the Stanley Cup Photo: Celia Jimenez of Spain and Emma Koivisto of Finland compete for the ball (Getty Images)

On Sportshour with Shari Vahl we hear from football player and refugee, Hakeem al-Araibi whose detention in Thailand sparked an outcry. He has since been freed from jail after Bahrain withdrew its extradition request. He was detained in Bangkok in November on an Interpol notice requested by Bahrain. Al-Araibi denies all charges and speaks to us about his time in prison. Also this week Kathryn Webb and Whitney Jenkins join us to discuss a new sport designed by robots. Speedgate has been developed by a computer and we hear how it was designed and the other rogue (and sometimes dangerous) ideas which were put forward. The domestic football season in Scotland comes to an end with Celtic looking to complete an historic trebble-trebble. But seven places below Celtic in the table is Motherwell. It is the only fan owned team in the Scottish top flight and are the focus of a new documentary called "We Own the Future". We speak live to the director and producer of that film, Jon Newell. This week the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year was announced and Lyon striker Ada Hegerberg won the award for the second time. Hear how she reacted when she was surprised by Sarah Mulkerrins. Photo: Supporters receive footballer Hakeem al-Araibi upon his arrival at the airport in Melbourne (Getty Images)

Jennifer Kucpcho won the first ever women's tournament to be held on the perfectly manicured greens of the Augusta National. It's been the venue for the prestigious Masters tournament since 1934 and remains one of the most exclusive clubs in the world of sport. Membership is by invitation only and restricted to just 300 at any given time. Even when, then first women member was admitted back in 2012 - the former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in case you were wondering - the thought of them playing a tournament there seemed fanciful in a sport not known for its inclusivity. So Jennifer can truly claim to be a history maker - winner of the first Augusta National Women's Amateur Championship - to give it the full title! She tells Shari Vahl what her achievement means for women's golf and how important momentum is not lost. There are less than 500 days to go until the 2020 Olympic Games and for Mohamed Sbihi, he is aiming to make history. The 31 year old is part of the Great Britain Rowing team who have their sights on a sixth consecutive gold medal. Sbihi himself is an Olympic champion and is the first Muslim to be included in the GB squad. He now holds out hope for others who could follow his example into rowing. We are in Spain for one of the fiercest competitive derbies in the La Liga. Real Betis play Sevilla on Saturday and we take you behind the scenes at Real Betis where you will hear the Chief Executive Jose Miguel Lopez Catalan who joined the club two years ago with no football experience. He has been telling the BBC about how important family and fans are to the football club. The Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes is set to retire at the end of the season and what better way than to bow out playing in the FA Cup final against Manchester City next month.Gomes is seeking FA Cup heaven and in his own words, says, he plans to answer his 'call from Jesus' and become a pastor as well as a football agent. One man who has followed that path is former Chelsea midfielder Gavin Peacock - he's now nestled in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Canada and he told Shari Vahl how he made the transition from football to being a pastor himself. The former England Rugby Union international Christian Wade joins us as his dream to the play in the NFL took a step closer this week. Picture - Jennifer Kupcho (Credit - Getty Images)

The You and Yours podcast with Shari Vahl and Jess Quayle

Paralympic cyclist Hannah Dines tell's Shari Vahl how some female riders are suffering in silence with injuries because of saddles designed predominantly for men. After incidents of racist abuse during England's European Championship qualifier in Montenegro Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp led a number of Premier League managers in saying they would be prepared to take their players off the pitch in a bid to combat racism. Marko Protic from the BBC’s Serbian Service looks at whether this is a systemic problem in the Balkans or as Sterling put it "just a couple of idiots". And we meet snooker's women's world number three, Rebecca Kenna, who says she has been forced to turn her back on her local league after being barred from matches because she is a woman. She says she'd felt abandoned after being stopped from playing in two fixtures because of clubs operating a "men-only" policy. Photo:Hannah Dines action at the UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championship in 2015. Credit: Christopher Lee/Getty Images

Jamaican runner Kemoy Campbell was told by doctors he had "died" after collapsing on the track during an Athletics event in New York. Campbell spent 17 days in hospital and has been fitted with an internal defibrillator. Despite numerous tests doctors were unable to deduce the cause of the heart failure. He’s been telling Shari Vahl of his traumatic experience. You and I would call it climbing the stairs - most of us do it every day at some point. But for Suzy Walsham - it's a sport and a competitive one as well. She is an elite vertical runner. The Australian defended her crown last week when she won the women's race to the top of the Eiffel Tower. 1665 steps in under eight minutes. She tells Shari Vahl how the journey to the top began. Kerron Stewart won a silver medal in the 100m at the 2009 World Championships. The multiple world and Olympic champion has now been recruited by a Finnish football club as part of their coaching team. The 34 year old who announced her retirement last year, will work with the club from May to September this year. Stewart has been explaining to Shari Vahl how the move came about. The 36th America’s Cup, affectionately known as the Auld Mug, the oldest trophy in international sport and dates back to 1851.It's the pinnacle of yachting that takes place in Auckland in 2021 - Team New Zealand are the defending champions but one of their challengers will be the Netherlands team - all the focus will be on one woman - 45 year old Carlolijn Brouwer who's aiming to make a piece of sailing history. She is on track to become the first ever female to helm a challenger yacht in the Americas cup. Whilst both men and women have equal opportunities at Olympic level of the sport, there has always been a restricted path for women when it comes to the bigger international events. Carlojin told Shari what can be done to encourage more women to take up sailing. Pakistan has a current FIFA ranking of 199, out of 211 nations. Earlier this year, one of Spain's top clubs -Atletico Madrid opened a new academy in Lahore. Vice President of the Pakistan Football Federation Naveed Haider Khan has been telling Sportshour what exactly this means for Pakistan. Picture - Kemoy Campbell (Credit - Getty Images)

Buy-to-let lending is down but is this unexpected and should we worry? Shari Vahl asks the questions but due to a rather busy news day I am cut off in my prime!

An exclusive investigation by BBC Trending looks at the YouTubers who are promoting academic cheating online. More than 250 popular YouTube channels have been paid to advertise Edubirdie, an essay-writing company. Many of the adverts, which collectively have had hundreds of millions of views, urge students to hire a “super smart nerd” to write their essays. It’s not illegal, but students caught handing in other people’s work can face serious consequences. So are the video stars misusing their power to influence and what is YouTube doing about it? The statistician Hans Rosling used data to explain how the world was changing – and often improving – more than we think and he would challenge people to examine their preconceptions. Before his death, he started working on a book about the mental biases that tend to lead us astray. Tim Harford speaks to his son Ola and daughter in law Anna who worked on the book with him. Why do people fall victim to online romance frauds? With false online profiles, doctored photographs, and convincing background stories, online fraudsters target people who are looking for love. Once they have hooked their victims, they set about stealing money from them. But what convinces people that their new relationship is so realistic that they become willing to hand over large amounts of money to someone who they may never meet. Shari Vahl reports. (Photo: Popular YouTuber Adam Saleh has advertised Edubirdie on his channel. Photo credit: Adam Saleh/YouTube)

Why do people fall for online romance frauds? With false online profiles, doctored photographs, and convincing background stories, online fraudsters target people who are looking for love and online relationships. Once they have hooked their victims, they set about stealing money from them. But what convinces people that their new relationship is so realistic that they become willing to hand over large amounts of money to someone who they may never meet. Shari Vahl explores why people fall for such frauds, hearing the stories of two women and the online relationship they believed would bring them a new future – and which turned out to be an costly false hope. Shari hears from cyber-psychology expert Monica Whitty and people hacker Jennifer Radcliffe, as well as from police in the UK and USA. What are the hooks that these international criminal gangs use to defraud their victims and what happens when victims discover that the truth about their online relationship. (Image: Internet dating gone wrong, Credit: Shutterstock)

This week, Manchester United and the world of football marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Munich Air disaster. The greatest footballer in Kenya’s history – Joe Kadenge became a Manchester United fan after the tragedy and for the first time in his life, he got to watch United play at Old Trafford against Huddersfield. During his visit to Manchester, he attended the Munich memorial service on Tuesday and also popped into the BBC Sport studio where we spoke to him about fulfilling a lifetime ambition of visiting the Theatre of Dreams. Christina Snead has dedicated her whole life to making a difference in sport. Most weekends, you'll find her officiating high-school American football games in her native North Carolina; the first woman to do so. But in 2003 Christina was pregnant with her first child and was enjoying what appeared to be a healthy pregnancy until complications arose while she went into labour. Her son Brandon was in distress and his brain was injured during birth. Even though he survived, he has never recovered enough to live at home, requiring a feeding tube, ventilator and around-the-clock care. Despite Brandon’s health battle, Christina tells us her next aim is make it to the NFL! Mayor Changai is a refugee from South Sudan but is now living in Sydney and is the coach of the Savanah Pride Basketball Club. The programme has stopped loitering and fighting on the streets of Blacktown. Some of his players have earned scholarships to play US college Basketball. The BBC’s Phil Mercer went along to a training session. Taking up running can seem like a scary prospect, especially if you feel out of shape or unfit. NHS Couch to 5K will help you gradually work up towards running 5K in just 9 weeks. On New Year’s Day, we heard presenter Shari Vahl take on the challenge so how is she going at the ½ way stage? The motivational voice on the podcast, Laura, interviews Shari on progress and tips on how to keep motivated. Roald Bradstock is a former athlete, he has twice represented Great Britain at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games but 30 years on, he will be going back to South Korea, this time as an artist. He tells Shari that his lifetime goal was to become an Olympic athlete but his other lifetime dream was to become an Olympic artist. He is part of the IOC’s historic and first ever Olympic Art Project. With all eyes on the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, we look back at one of the iconic moments of the Games which happened on 22nd February, 1980 when the United States stunned the defending champions Soviet Union 4-3 in the men's Ice Hockey competition. Since then, it's been known as the "Miracle On Ice" - Neal Broten was a member of the gold medal winning US team and talks us through that memorable day. Picture - Munich Air Disaster tribute t-shirt (Credit - Getty Images)

The You and Yours podcast presented by Peter White and Shari Vahl

Marco Nardi wants to sell his home in Kensington but after five months he's had just five viewers and has now had to drop the asking price from £4.75m to £3.85m. Will he have to drop it further and is what's happening to the top end of the market in London likely to spread across other parts of the country asks Shari Vahl. Knight Frank are now selling Marco's home. You can find details here;- http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67371425.html

With a year to go until London 2012 Shari Vahl profiles John Armitt CBE, Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority and charged with delivering the £9bn project on time and budget.

There were cheers and jeers in the House this week when Elizabeth Filkin was named as head of the enquiry to advise on cleaning up the relationship between the Met and the media following the hacking scandal.As former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards she challenged vested interests at Westminster, until she was 'hounded out' by MPs in 2002 after questioning the probity of some of their number. She took on Keith Vaz - who this week chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee's questioning of recently resigned Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson - during her investigation into his links with the Hinduja family and accused him of deliberately trying to thwart her enquiries.Supporters describe her as "fair but firm... someone who cannot be bribed, bought or bullied."Filkin doesn't come with the typical background for a Government-appointed inquisitor. She is a former community worker, having worked in the London Borough of Brent back in the 1970s. She went on to to be an academic, as well as Chief Executive of the Citizens Advice Bureau.Now over 70, in recent years Elizabeth Filkin may have been out of the limelight, but as Shari Vahl reports, her antecedence suggests she's someone who wants to get at the truth - and isn't too concerned who she upsets along the way.