Sporting Witness

Bibian Mentel-Spee became a national hero in the Netherlands after campaigning for snowboarding to become part of the Winter Paralympics and then winning Gold the first time the event was held, at Sochi in 2014. Mentel-Spee had switched to Paralympic sport after cancer forced her to have a leg amputated. She would win two more gold snowboarding medals at the next games in Pyeongchang in 2018, just weeks after another gruelling round of cancer treatment. Mentel-Spee died in 2021. Matthew Kenyon speaks to her husband, Edwin Spee, and to Canadian Paralympic snowboarder, Michelle Salt.

PHOTO: Bibian Mentel-Spee in action in 2014 (Getty Images)

In February 1988, the American speedskater, Dan Jansen was told on the day of his Winter Olympic final that his sister had died of cancer. Stricken by grief, he then fell during his race. It took Dan Jansen another six years - and five more races - before he finally won gold and completed one of the most emotional laps-of-honour in Olympic history. He spoke to Simon Watts in 2014.

PHOTO: Dan Jansen (Getty Images)

Morten Andersen arrived in the US at the age of 17 knowing nothing about American football. He went on to become a record-breaking NFL kicker and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. Alex Last speaks to Morten about his remarkable career and hears why the kicker is one of the most under-appreciated skill positions in American football.

Photo: Kicker Morten Andersen of the New Orleans Saints kicks on a hold by Tommy Barnhardt, Oct 1991 (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)

Vonetta Flowers became the first black athlete to win a Winter Olympic gold, when her US pair won the two-woman Bobsleigh event in 2002. Flowers started her career as a sprinter and long-jumper, but switched to bobsledding after failing to make the American summer Olympic team. She was a natural for the brake-woman role and formed a successful team with driver, Jill Bakken. Vonetta Flowers speaks to Iain Mackness. The programme is a Made-In-Manchester production.

(Photo: Vonetta Flowers celebrating her Olympic victory in 2002. Credit: Getty Images)

Shiva Keshavan was the first Indian to compete in one of the most dangerous events at the Winter Olympics – the luge. At the 1998 games in Japan, the 16-year-old was the only athlete in the Indian team and had to lead himself out in the opening ceremony in Nagano. Shiva Keshavan took part in a further five Winter Olympics and is credited with boosting awareness of snow sports in India. In 2020, he spoke to Farhana Haider.

(Photo: Shiva Keshavan in action in 2010. Credit: Getty Images)

Aged thirteen, Novak Djokovic appeared at coach Nikola Pilic's tennis academy near Munich. He would soon become Pilic's star pupil thanks to his incredible self-discipline and natural tennis brain. Twenty grand slams later, the Serbian star is still in touch with Nikola Pilic, and regards him as one of his mentors. Nikola Pilic speaks to Petra Zivic.

PHOTO: Novak Djokovic in 2008, the year he won his first tennis major (Getty Images)

In 2011, the rugged mountains of Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan became the backdrop of something as unlikely as it was uplifting - an international ski scene. As Bamiyan was then relatively safe for tourists, a new travel agency, supported by a development NGO, started offering holidays to skiers seeking a unique adventure. A ski school was also set up for local villagers keen to learn, including Alishah Farhang, who went on to become one of Afghanistan's top skiers. However, as he tells Viv Jones, his hopes of competing in the Winter Olympics have been shattered by the return of the Taliban.

PHOTO: Competitors take part in the start of the fourth Afghan Ski Challenge in February 2014 (Shefayee/AFP/Getty Images).

In 1976, the Yale women's rowing team stripped naked to demand equal treatment for women's sport. The protest attracted national attention in the USA and helped force universities to make the same funding and facilities available to women athletes as to men. Catherine Davies talks to two of the Yale protestors, Christine Ernst and Ginny Gilder.

(Photo: The 1976 Yale women's rowing team in action. Credit: Getty Images).

At the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Nigerian shotputter, Lauritta Onye, became a social media sensation thanks to her cart-wheeling gold-medal celebration dance. Onye has dwarfism and has never grown beyond four foot one, or 125 centimetres. She suffered social stigma in Nigeria and at one point ended up selling DVDs on the street in order to survive. But a taster session of Paralympic sport would transform her life. She talks to Ian Williams .

PHOTO: Lauritta Onye competing at the Rio Paralympics (Getty Images)

In 1971, the Bangladeshi football team made history at the height of the country's war of independence when they played a series of matches in India. The games were the first to be played under the flag of a nation that was still not officially recognised and helped raise money for Bangladesh's independence struggle. Farhana Haider talks to star striker Kazi Salahuddin, who was smuggled into India so he could take part in the matches.

Photo:The Shadhin Bangla Football Dol "Free Bengal Football Team", 1971. Credit: Kazi Salahuddin.