Sportshour

One of rugby union's finest players, the South African, Joost van der Westhuizen died this week at the age of 45. Diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2011, he set up the J9 Foundation to raise funds for awareness of MND and help support families of those with the disease, dedicating as much commitment and energy as he did to his rugby career. Dr Franclo Henning - the Chairman of the Motor Neurone Disease Association of South Africa tells us how van der Westhuizen inspired others to keep battling the disease.Million dollar pitcher Softball player Monica Abbott is the first woman in American team sports to sign a million dollar contract. Her deal with the Scrap Yard Dawgs in Texas means she is in receipt of the most lucrative contract ever awarded to a female athlete in team sport. She tells us how she finalised the deal.Fair play in India India recently launched its first ever national women's football league. It may only feature six teams but it's being seen as a crucial moment for the sport in the world

A special show from Super Bowl LI in HoustonPhoto: Players celebrate after winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy (Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Formula One has new owners, who want to expand and modernise the sport. So could it become truly global, and feature a race in Africa, the only continent without a Grand Prix. It's hard to think of a country as obsessed with one sport as India is with cricket. The game helps to give a country of 1.3 billion people an identity. Getting a ticket for a one day match when India are playing is for many impossible We go to Chennai and Kolkata to discover just how difficult it is.At the age of 63 Charles Eugster was tempted back to competitive rowing by the introduction of a category for the over 60s. He says he's not unique and everyone can enjoy a rewarding later life by following a similar regime, where exercise is a preventative measure and a treatment.The two Belgrade football clubs - Partizan and Red Star have great histories, but it's a different story today, and Partizan have been banned from European competition because of financial irregularities. Sportshour reports from Belgrade as both clubs continue

As Donald Trump takes charge of the world's most powerful nation we head back to the early 1980s when his goals were slightly more modest. One of his ambitions was to own a sport franchise and he converted an NFL team. Unable to make this happen he purchased the New Jersey Generals American football team of the newly formed USFL. Within two years the league had collapsed and many blame Trump for its demise.We hear from some of those involved with the USFL and the team including Trump’s right hand man at the Generals, Jimmy Gould.(Photo: Donald Trump (R) at a press conference for the New Jersey Generals of the USFL: Credit: AP)

Can mental toughness developed on the football field help kick cancer? Phil Brabbs thinks so.It can be the loneliest job in all of sport. You sit on the sidelines and watch your team mates toil for the whole match, and American football games last for hours, but you might only be on the field for a matter of seconds. Yet it could be you alone who snatches victory or condemns your team to defeat. Welcome to the world of the place-kicker!In 2002, in front of 110,000 people, Phil Brabbs kicked a last minute field goal to claim a place in University of Michigan football folklore. It's a moment that never left him and it was a good job too, because it was the mental toughness he developed during his football career that he credits with helping him beat his toughest challenge, cancer.Photo: Phil Brabbs, Founder of the Cancer Kickers Foundation at the offices of the business he started Torrent Consulting (Credit: BBC)

College sport is a a billion dollar industry in America. Basketball and football attract huge television audiences and crowds in excess of 100,000 at games. It attracts the biggest names and very highest paid coaches in American sport. The players however do not earn a penny. They are 'student athletes' and although some of them will get their education paid for, is it time those players get a share of the massive revenue they generate?(Photo: Aerial view of the half-time show at the Rose Bowl Game 1984. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Listen back to the two most significant moments in the Sportshour yearRemembering and rejoicing. We hear from those whose lives were influenced by Muhammad Ali, who passed away in 2016.Plus, San Quentin Correction Facility, one of North America's most notorious prisons. It has held convicts like Charles Manson, and today it houses the largest death row population in the USA. The cells are dark, claustrophobic and threatening. However outside in the Californian sun is one of the more progressive rehabilitation projects in the American penal system: The San Quentin tennis program. The tennis court is one of very few places in the prison where racial divides do not exist. No matter of race or gang affiliation, the tennis court is a neutral zone. Caroline Barker is on court with murderers, bank robbers and kidnappers. Photo: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) lying on his hotel bed in London in 1963. He holds up five fingers in a prediction of how many rounds it will take him to knock out British boxer Henry Co

A selection of the most listened to features and interviews from Sportshour in 2016 including:How America Suzy Favour Hamilton went from Olympic finalist in Sydney to a Las Vegas escort. She failed to win 1500m gold, she apparently settled into family life, but it subsequently came out that she'd been working as a high-class escort. Suzy explains how mental illness drove her to prostitution and how she wrote her autobiography to set the record straight. Plus how Houry Gebeshian, the sole Armenian female representative in gymnastics at the 2016 Rio Olympics, combined her training with a job delivering babies!And in the year the SuperBowl celebrated its 50th anniversary, we heard from Tom Brown part of the winning Green Bay Packers team back at Super Bowl I. He recalls working under his legendary coach Vince Lombari, whom the trophy is now named after.Photo: Suzy Favor Hamilton Credit: Getty (L) Suzy Favor Hamilton (R)

We look at the sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed gymnastics in the USA. We hear from former gymnast Rachael Denhollander on waiving her right to anonymity to accuse former USA national team doctor Dr Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. We also hear from John Manley the lawyer representing two gymnasts, including an Olympian, who are suing Gymnastics USA for their failure to act on allegations brought to them about Dr Nasser. Mark Alesia one of the investigators from the Indianapolis Star, the paper that broke the story, also joins us. "I feared for my own safety" The documentary 'Forever Pure' centres on Israel's most notorious football club, Beitar Jerusalem. The film follows the team, its fans and owners after signing two Muslim players from Chechnya. The first Muslims to play for the team... The angry reaction of fans shocked the country with director Maya Zinshtein receiving death threats.Acting the part of captain Ed Rolston had two dreams growing up, to play international rugby and to be a star of the bi

DeAndre Levy is a star of the Detroit Lion's American football team, but it is not just on the field that he excels. Never afraid to speak out, he has dedicated to educating and changing the 'macho culture' that exists in American football and wider society. DeAndre has joined the effort of other organisations and individuals across the city of Detroit to test more than 11,000 neglected rape kits and investigate and prosecute the resulting cases as part of the Enough Said programme. The BBC's Joel Hammer has been to Detroit to meet DeAndre and Peg Tallet of the Michigan Women's Foundation and enoughsaiddetroit.org Post Surrealist Cech and his Mate: What is the relationship like between goalkeepers and their goal? Arsenal’s Petr Cech and Chelsea’s Asmir Begovic discuss this abstract concept, and it turns out it is a love-hate relationship! It follows Gianluigi Buffon who earlier this year penned a heartfelt open letter to the goal that he defends.Sporting Witness Fifty years on from an historic basketball mat

In 1960 the plane carrying the Cal Poly American football team crashed on take-off. It claimed the lives of 22 people, including 16 players. Gil Stork was a member of the team and on board that night. He survived those terrible events and tells of a terrifying night, the life long aftermath and how to deal with the feeling of guilt for surviving.Women’s Afcon We’re in Yaoundé ahead of the Women’s AFCON final. According to FIFA’s Isha Johansen the game of football is helping educate and protect children against child marriage in Cameroon and across Africa. America Kabaddi Champions!? (We’re not holding our breath) Rap performer David Richey recently swapped spitting lyrics for repeating the same word over and over again, all in the name of sport. The musician used what he's learnt on stage to enhance his sporting achievements. His sport is Kabaddi and David competed for America at the recent world cup. Indian Tee Time Golf is largely a rich man's sport and most of India's population live in villages in the ru

"Sports in our country is not an instrument of politics, but sports in our country itself is a consequence of the Revolution" The words of the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, who has died. So what will Fidel Castro's legacy on Cuban Sport be? We hear from Manuel Barcia, Professor of Latin American History at Leeds University and has written on sport in Cuba.Breaking the Silence: We look at the implications from a week of revelations about child abuse in English football. This issue of course is not restricted to just English football. We hear from survivors of abuse from different parts of the world and question if authorities and governing bodies do enough to protect young people when they are in the care of coaches.In a League of Her Own: Australian Ruan Simms comes from a Rugby league family... Brothers Ashton, Korbin and Tariq are all professional rugby league players, and now she is too! She’s just become the first female rugby league player to receive a paid contract by signing with the Cronulla Sharks.Pho

Caroline Barker brings you the stories of the week, from the adventurer facing death head on rowing the Pacific from Japan to Alaska, to the youngest and most controversial heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and how the new language of cricket on the radio, is helping grow the game in Zimbabwe.(Image: Ronnie O'Sullivan in Soho, credit: Getty Images)

England and Scotland lining up at Wembley - but the build up to the oldest fixture in international football focused not just on the match, but the decision by both associations to wear black armbands bearing a poppy to commemorate those who have died through conflict. This was despite being told by FIFA, that they were not allowed to and would face punishment.

Cricket in The Jungle, a different CalaisHow will history remember the now demolished Calais Migrant Camp? Reporting of this story would suggest that the ripping apart of 'The Jungle' has been a narrative of human suffering and hopelessness - but perhaps there's more to tell. Journalist Rosamund Urwin visited the camp in its final weeks and returned home determined to do something. Her partner, Charlie Campbell, is a publisher and captain of The Authors cricket team. Together, they returned to The Jungle with bats, balls and stumps and played cricket with those they found there. How much of a difference do they think they made that day and is that where there involvement with those refugees ended?Who'd be a Host?Is London's Olympic Stadium fit to host Premier League football? There'll be extra policing when West Ham host Stoke City on Saturday, a reaction to rival fans clashing during last week's League Cup tie against Chelsea. The cost of converting the venue for Football is also now the subject of an

During 1966 English football enjoyed a momentous year. It was also a significant moment for football in South Africa and in particular for the inmates of Robben Island. It was the year the Macana Football Association was created by the prisoners locked up in apartheid South Africa. Former inmate Dumisani Mwandhla recalls the importance of football to those imprisoned.The Wanderer: Erden Eruc was the first person to complete an entirely solo human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. So, no cars, no trains, no planes - just legs and arms! It took him over five years to complete his journey. Now aged 55, his desire to explore remains undimmed and new projects are planned. But it was deciding to take on that first challenge that changed his life forever.The Female Game Changers: When film director Molly Schiot had another pitch for a feature about women’s sport rejected, she decided to create a website, so she could tell the stories of the unsung pioneers of women's sport. She has collated them in to a new

Ian Brown might be homeless, but it hasn’t stopped him training for and successfully completing the Melbourne marathon last week. After years of homelessness Ian found help and redemption in running, supported by Australian charity ‘On My Feet’. They provide new trainers and use running to raise the homeless self-esteem with remarkable results. We speak to Ian and ‘On My Feet’ CEO Keegan Crage.Ultra Marathon There was a time running 26.2 miles would be enough to fulfil a personal dream and/or be sufficient to brag endlessly on social media. Now however if you’re running anything less than 50 miles you’re not trying! We look at the growth in popularity of ultra-marathon by taking part (figuratively) in an overnight race which also raised funds for schools across Africa.Joggling Marathon: When Michal Kapral finished the Chicago marathon in less than 3 hours, he was rightly proud… What’s more he never dropped a ball on the entire route… That’s because Michal is a joggler and ran the entire marathon whilst jugg

Donald Trump's dismissal of his comments about women as "locker room talk" has angered the sporting community. But is there some truth in what he's saying - in terms of what is said in players' dressing rooms? Former NFL player Joe Ehrmann is now coaching American sportsmen to change their negative attitudes towards women. He believes that the outcry over Trump's comments can be used as a catalyst to change those attitudes.As Fifa continues its process of reform following a series of corruption scandals, Joyce Cook has become the first disabled person to be appointed to the management board of world football's governing body. A wheelchair user herself, she's initiated a range of diversity and inclusion projects within the game. How does she see her new role at Fifa? The Volvo Ocean Race is encouraging more female sailors to take part by introducing mixed crews for next year's race. Men-only line-ups will be limited to seven sailors, while an all-female crew can number eleven. But there will be various combin

This week stories from the Iron Curtain to the baseball diamond, the boxing ring, to the stage. We hear from Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten as she returns to the road after her horror crash during the women's road race at the Rio Olympics. The first female Olympic boxing Gold medalist Nicola Adams is with us as we hear about Muhammad Ali and Me, the play combining dance and poetry to tell the story of the world's greatest boxer. We follow one man's 10,000km ride from Norway to Bulgaria as he cycles the Iron Curtain plus we're in Los Angeles as legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully hangs up his microphone after 67 years in the LA Ddodgers commentary booth. Photo: Annemiek van Vleuten. (Credit: Annemiek van Vlueten/Twitter)

It sounds like science fiction, but the world's first bionic Olympics is being organised. It's called the Cybathalon and will be held in Switzerland. We hear from some of the competitors taking part and to Professor Robert Riener from the University of Zurich, an expert in developing robot-aided rehabilitation and organiser of this unique competition “If Only Australia Were Proud Of Us” Is counting medals the best way for nations to judge Olympic success? We hear from Australian rower and Rio gold medalist Kim Brennan who thinks that people should worry less about the number of golds won, and concentrate much more on creating opportunities to inspire young people to participate in sport.Ryder Cup: The Ryder Cup is a mainstay of the sporting calendar, but what drove a flower seed salesman from the small English town of St. Albans to start the tournament and lend his name to it. We look at the life and legacy of Samuel Ryder. Far From the Fame: For many being an athlete in the NFL allows for a comfortable lifes