Amazing Sport Stories is the BBC World Service podcast about sport but not as you know it. There are other podcasts about champions, team news and millionaire superstars – this one is about courage, rulebreakers, underdogs, myths, legends and expecting the unexpected.
The Beeb have searched the world for these tales, which are told in mini-seasons and short stories. Previous mini-seasons have included the stories of the “Black 14”, a group of 14 American football players who were kicked off their university team in Wyoming in 1969 for wanting to protest against racism at another university, and a 12-year-old girl from Canada who just wanted to play ice hockey with the boys – when she was told she couldn’t, she turned from the ice rink to the court, transforming a sporting fight into a legal battle.
Series programme information
Episode 1
A near death experience motivates a mountaineer to scale the world’s highest peaks. But two others are trying at the same time. They say this isn’t a race but they are locked in competition to be the first woman to reach the summit of the fourteen peaks.
Episode 2
Then there were five. Two super-fast new challengers are powering up the peaks and the pressure is on. Edurne Pasaban, Gerlinde Katlernbrunner and Nives Meroi have been climbing the world’s highest mountains at a rate of around one a year. With the arrival of the South Korean climbers – Oh Eun-sun and Go Mi-young – the stakes are supercharged.
Episode 3
The mountaineers are climbing the final peaks and three of them are neck and neck. The other two are close behind. They say it’s not a race but their sense of competition is intense. Can they all make it and is the lead climber about to take the title?
Episode 4
We have a winner – or so we think. Questions are being asked, as an earlier climb comes under scrutiny. If you don’t actually reach the summit, can you still claim the title of first woman to scale the fourteen highest peaks? The mountaineers risked their lives on the ultimate challenge – can they make peace with what has happened?
