With both her parents and brothers surfing, it was natural that Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich got into the sport at the age of three. As a teenager she competed in the US Open surfing competition, where she made the quarter-finals.

But it was in 2004 when she made history by becoming the first South American woman to win the World Surfing Championship.

She tells Rachael Devine about the waves she had to ride to get the world title, and later to be inducted into the Surfing Walk of Fame. A Tbone production for BBC World Service.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Sofia Mulanovich in 2004. Credit: Pierre Tostee/AFP via Getty Images)