Athletes: The Other Side

#005 – If Athletes: The Other Side was tailor made for any one athlete out there, it must be Callum Skinner. The Olympic Champion, who scored his greatest success in the Rio de Janeiro Velodrome at the 2016 Games, has clocked up more 'other side' successes in the 18 months since his retirement from the track - and by the mere age of 28 - than many athletes will manage in a lifetime.

Symbolising a new breed of athlete reformers taking a grip on Olympic sport, Callum, in his prominent role as Lead Athlete of athlete-led movement, Global Athlete, has been taking on organisations such as the International Olympic Committee with his plans for shaking up how Olympic sport should be run. With a burgeoning career in sports governance, he also sits on the athlete bodies of the British Olympic Association and UK Anti-Doping.

In this fifth outing of Athletes: The Other Side, Callum talks to host and friend Ben Nichols about this and much more, including the two new businesses he has launched this year, in the wildly different markets of coffee and cycling – and all this, despite Covid-19.

Hear more about the Scotsman's pursuits in sports marketing, sport science, business and more – and prepare to be inspired by an athlete going places. 

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:
http://bennichols.co.uk/the-athlete-entrepreneur-with-callum-skinner 

#004 – Emma Coburn is a World Champion middle distance runner, hailing from the “Americana idyll”of Crested Butte, Colorado. As the first ever American woman to win a World Championships gold medal in the 3000m steeplechase, she is also an 8-time national US Champion, 3-time NCAA Champion and 6-time All-American. She’s founder of the ‘Elk Run’ and Vice President of new athlete rights movement, The Athletics Association.

In this fourth outing of Athlete: The Other Side, Ben speaks to this home town heroine about her huge ambition to set the pace off the track just as she has done on it. Whether it be through her route into athlete advocacy, her culinary advice to fellow competitors, establishing her very own 5k run in her home town to support people with cancer, Emma demonstrates her entrepreneurial spirit and will give you, the listener, a glimpse into what is still to come in a career already littered with successes.

If you want to learn and listen to a humble, authentic home town heroine that has reached the pinnacle on the track and seems destined to reach new heights off it, then this instalment of Athlete: The Other Side is one not to miss.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to: http://bennichols.co.uk/hometown-heroine-with-emma-coburn/ 

#003 -The phrase always expect the unexpected doesn’t even start to do it justice as a motto for Chris Cracknell’s life. A former decorated rugby international, Englishman Chris captained his country’s national Sevens side, taking them to glory by winning the Emirates Airline London Sevens title in 2009.

Living in West London with in a nice apartment, a flashy car and a comfortable career with the England Rugby Football Union, life was seemingly good for Chris. However, beneath that on-the-surface perception, the change that was to come his way could not come soon enough. A chance phone call from his long-time England coach, mentor and friend Ben Ryan in 2014, changed his fortunes - and his outlook on life - forever. Within a matter of weeks, he was on a plane to Fiji where he was to go on to become something of a local celebrity in a country where rugby is king. As Assistant Coach to the Men’s Rugby Sevens side, he helped Ryan take Fiji to win the first ever Olympic Rugby Sevens title at Rio 2016. As Head Coach of the Fijiana, he also took the Women’s Sevens Side to the quarter-finals in Rio – a remarkable achievement in a country where women’s rugby was not just out-of-fashion, it was near non-existent.

In this compelling episode released to coincide with launch day of Athletes: The Other Side, Chris tells host Ben Nichols how this remarkable story changed his life forever, and led him on to the world of hairdressing, the coffee industry and more.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:

http://bennichols.co.uk/food-water-shelter-with-chris-cracknell

#002 - Lauryn Williams is a financial planner, author, podcaster, motivational speaker and volunteer. But that’s not why most people recognise her name. Over a period of twelve years, she competed at the elite level in two Olympic sports – Track and Field (Athletics) and Bobsleigh. In doing so, she became the first American woman to win medals at both a Summer and a Winter Olympic Games.

In this second of three launch day episodes to mark the arrival of Athletes: The Other Side, Ben speaks to the sheer force of positive personality that is Lauryn Williams about her impressive transformation from athlete to financial planner – and about how her drive to empower athletes to manage their finances better runs through everything she does. If you want a post-lockdown pick-me-up, that spurs you on to achieve and succeed in your life, then this is one not to miss.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:

http://bennichols.co.uk/making-transition-worth-it-with-lauryn-williams

#001 - In her own words, Beckie Scott has witnessed both the light and dark sides of sport. In this first episode, host Ben Nichols talks to Beckie about how the young woman from Alberta, Canada defied the odds in the predominantly European sport of cross-country skiing by becoming Olympic Champion at Salt Lake City 2002 - and not in typical fashion.

Beckie talks to Ben about the emotional rollercoaster that came with her Bronze Medal being elevated to silver and then gold a year after the Games, as the two Russian competitors that finished ahead of her were sanctioned for doping. She also discusses how this extraordinary sequence of events spurred her on to become Athlete Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the leading athlete voice in anti-doping worldwide throughout the biggest scandal in sporting history, the Russian Doping Crisis. 

Listening to an individual that has led a life as trailblazing off the trails as it has been on them, we hope you'll leave inspired by just what can be achieved in life if you put your mind to something – and stick at it.

If you'd like to get the links and show notes for this episode, head to:

http://bennichols.co.uk/bronze-silver-gold-russia-with-beckie-scott/