Not by the Playbook

BBC World Service
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  • Sports
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Inspirational stories from around the world. Interviews with people defying the odds. Discover Not by the Playbook - the podcast which seeks out the most incredible stories from sportspeople and athletes. We bring you interviews with the sporting heroes who have achieved success in the face of seemingly impossible challenges. Hear from some of the most famous names in sport on subjects you've never heard them discuss before. You don't have to be an Olympic champion to have an extraordinary story – we also scour the globe for inspiring individuals who make a difference through sport. Whether you’re a football or soccer fan, tennis lover, golf aficionado or cricket addict, or even if you're not a sports fan at all, you’ll find inspiration in the stories of resilience, determination, and discipline. Expect insightful, honest, and thought-provoking conversations from people who live and breathe sport. Listen to Not by the Playbook on the BBC World Service every Saturday at 0900 GMT, or find it as a podcast wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

  1. 3d ago

    Fight for the right

    The future of one of the most progressive Polo clubs is under threat. For over twenty years Catherine Cairns has run Polo Africa on her farm in the Easter Free State of South Africa. Over the years she has not only enhanced the lives of hundreds children in the local community by introducing them to the sport of polo, she's help reshape the sport itself. Often seen as a sport for royalty and rich people, Polo Africa has made the sport accessible and changed the lives of many of those who had the chance to play... but now the work Catherine has put in over the years is under threat as she looks for alternative revenue streams... So she has enlisted former British army officer and Polo player Mark Cann who amongst many things has produced a stunning visual documentary of the farm, the surroundings and the lives of those that have been improved. Cricketer Ross Taylor who has achieved legendary status in New Zealand. His list of record and achievements is immense. A former captain of the national team, he played more than a record 450 times and is the only person in the world to have played more than 100 times in all three formats of cricket. The son of a New Zealand father and Samoan born mother, Ross grew up immersed in both cultures and wore the New Zealand cricket jersey with pride. Ross retired from the sport in 2022 but as it turned out his career in international cricket wasn't entirely over, when a chance to represent Samoa in 2025 he couldn't but help to answer the call! Now having finally retired, (we think!) Ross was looking for opportunities to use the platform that cricket gave him to influence the next generation. He explains why he wanted to join the "ALL IN" initiative a high-level panel pushing for the funding and political will to end violence against women and girls. Imagine competing in the same sport as your brother but having to watch him compete at the Olympics, but you can't. Why? Well the sport of Nordic Combined remained the last discipline at the Games not open to women. Well that's what has happened to Annika Malacinski. Nordic Combined is a combination of ski jumping and long distance endurance skiing. Now 25, Annika has fought hard to establish herself as one of the world's leading female Nordic Combined competitors but from the very first Winter Games in 1924 right up to and including the last Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina a few months ago, women are not allowed to compete. 70 years ago at the 1956 Olympics, the Czechoslovak discus thrower, Olga Fikotova, caused a scandal by falling in love with an American hammer thrower called Harold Connolly. Despite winning her country's only gold medal, Olga was treated as a traitor by the communist government and her achievements were ignored. A few months later, Harold Connolly visited Prague to marry Olga and take her back to America with him. PHOTO: One of the players benefiting fromt he Polo Africa project (CREDIT: https://www.poloafrica.com/ © 2026 Poloafrica Development Trust)

  2. Aug 7

    Behind the scenes

    Brady Kramer always dreamed of scoring the winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. And he got closer than most when he was drafted to the NHL by the Montreal Canadiens. But the challenges he faced off the ice caused his life to go in a very different direction. Challenges he's happy to share, in the hope he can help others. Brady excelled on the ice from a young age and earned himself a place at Providence College and a top tier, Division I hockey career. However, adapting to life away from his family was difficult, and he soon fell into bad habits. Despite Brady's unhealthy relationship with alcohol, his ability on the ice got him to Draft day in the NHL, but after a brief, unhappy spell in the Minor Leagues, Brady hung up his skates and faced his biggest challenge to date, life after hockey. He now spends his days helping those who also suffer with addiction, whilst continuing to navigate through his own difficulties. No one has represented England at rugby union more than Ben Youngs, and yet of his achievement he said "People are patting you on the back and telling you how great you are. And you’re thinking: ‘But I don’t feel that.’" Playing professional sport was sometimes something of a contradiction for him. He also said he "felt guilty playing for England after family tragedy", both his brother and sister lost their partners to illness. Now retired Ben has had some time to look back on his long career and evaluate when playing helped him off the pitch and when it was a struggle. Evaluating this balance is something he's carried on in his post playing career as a businessman and podcaster. When former Dutch boxing champion Barry Groenteman used to visit his grandmother at her retirement home, he would often see an older man shadow-boxing. "He showed me his ring with the Star of David on it. And my grandmother would whisper: 'That's Ben Bril.'" This is the story of a Jewish boxer from Amsterdam who had his life transformed by invasion, violence and anti-Semitism. A champion forced into hiding, then captured and sent to the Nazi concentration camps - after being betrayed by a former Olympic teammate. In 2015 and Nepalese runner Mira Rai who took the international "sky running" scene by storm, winning gold medals in ultra-endurance running events ranging from 50-150 kilometres. And behind Mira's achievements was a personal story that shocked the ultra-running world. She been telling Not by the Playbook's Hunter Charlton about being a teenage combatant in the Nepalese civil war. PHOTO: Ben Youngs of England acknowledges the fans whilst wearing his bronze medal following the team's victory during the Rugby World Cup 2023 Bronze Final match between Argentina and England (CREDIT: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

  3. Jul 31

    A common goal

    The Commonwealth Games - known as the Friendly Games - are held every four years. They have a three word moto "Humanity - showing that sport brings people together. Equality - that sport is for everyone. And Destiny - that sport is just the beginning. It's the only sporting event that combines both able bodied and para athletes. And the Commonwealth Games are a chance for smaller nations to shine in the sporting spotlight In 2014, Tonga had no national netball team, coach, squad, or training facilities. Determined to change that, former television news anchor Salote Sisifa became CEO of Tonga Netball and promised the board that within five years she would build a team capable of competing internationally and reaching the world’s top ten by 2025. If she failed, she would resign. Alongside, Head Coach Jaqua Pori-Makea-Simpson, Salote propelled Tonga from 42nd to 7th in the world rankings navigating national disaster, the Covid-19 pandemic, and restricted resources along the way. Sophia Hartley examines Tonga’s extraordinary journey and how they have become a formidable force on the international stage. Their next milestone is their Commonwealth Games debut in 2026. In the pool Olympic Champion Freya Anderson is aiming add to her already impressive medal collection. But Freya doesn't just have the opposition to beat, she has a condition which causes chronic pain; especially tough given her gruelling training schedule. Three years ago she was diagnosed with Endometriosis. Now back to her competitive best, Freya is raising awareness of the condition through her charity " Fast and Female ". Diminutive weight-lifter, Precious McKenzie was a prodigious talent. Apartheid prevented him from competing for his native South Africa. So Precious moved to the UK and worked in a shoe factory. While doing so, he finally achieved international success at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica. Photo: Tonga fan during the Netball World Cup 2023 (CREDIT: Shaun Roy/Gallo Images/Netball World Cup 2023 via Getty Images)

  4. Jul 24

    Up, up and away

    Australia's Emma McDonald is an acrobatic pilot for team "BeyondGravity", racing her plane at high speeds and low altitudes, weaving her way through a course set out in the sky competing in the Air Race X championship. Needing a remarkable mix of strength and agility, and a super focused mindset, those like Emma who succeed at this high octane sport are a rare breed. So how does anyone develop a career in acrobatic aviation? Emma has been revealing all the secrets. Dutchman Bob Van De Burgt loves windsurfing, but it's a demanding physical activity that needs more than a little help from mother nature. It's why races tend to be short, sharp and exciting. Bob excels in all of that, but what he really loves is endurance windsurfing. And it turns out he's pretty good at that too. A few weeks ago he took to a lake near his home in the Netherlands and didn't get off his board again for a full twenty four hours! In that time he broke all sorts of world records and raised money for charity along the way : We send ten billion of them every day! Emoji's have become a very common way of communicating because sometimes words just aren't enough and an emoji can says it all! When elite climber Sasha DiGiulian told us on a previous show that the climbing emoji was based on her, we wanted to know a little bit more. Turns out we live in a world with an official "chief emoji officer" so we tracked them down. Welcome to the wonderful world of emojis with former "Chief Emoji Officer" Jeremy Burge. Smiley face emoji To celebrate his 90th birthday this year, Shaul Ladany went out for a walk near his home close to the city of Beer Sheva in southern Israel . A pretty LONG walk. 5 kilometres in fact. Not bad for a man of his age, but nothing compared to his heyday as a long-distance race-walker who set world records that stand to this day! But, even more remarkably, he survived a childhood in the Belsen concentration camp and then the terrorist attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics in 1972. (Photo: Matt Hall (top) and Emma McDonald of the Red Bull aerobatic team perform during the Australian International Airshow Aerospace and Defence Expo at Avalon Airport in Geelong, 3 March, 2023. Credit: Paul Crock/AFP)

  5. Jul 17

    World Cup Winners

    "The World Cup is not just a great global sporting event, it is also inscribed with much deeper cultural and political importance". So said academic Martin Jacques, and so to mark the World Cup final we bring you stories from the very top echelons to the most basic grass roots of the game and everything in between. When Isha Johansen returned to Sierra Leone after the brutal civil war there she was determined to help heal and rebuild her country. Her tools, football. She set up her own team and started laying the foundations for a career in the governance of the game. Firstly by being elected president of the Sierra Leone Football Association and then, by election, on to the FIFA Council. But despite her success Isha was exposed to some of the very worst aspects of power and influence and what people are prepared to do for it. Isha has recently charted her life and pioneering career in a new book called “The Uncommon Enemy: A True Story of Football, Power and Betrayal”. Gundeep Anand is a bundle of energy. A man with more than a decade of community engagement and working with young people, you might have thought he had been jaded by the drudgery of life. But he's the opposite and it's this verve and vibe he brings to his annual street soccer tournament, The Last Stand. A busy man (not least because he was organising the tournament) we spoke to Gundeep as he travelled to his next meeting in a cab in Central London, and there's even a cameo from David Beckham! The American Outlaws are the largest soccer supporters group in the world. Nearly 20 years on from their founding we hear from Trevin Wurm, who runs the Lincoln, Nebraska branch about his highs and lows from the World Cup and what he expects the legacy to be for soccer in the USA Pickles the dog became an unlikely hero before the 1966 World Cup when he found the stolen Jules Rimet trophy on his daily walk. Stardom beckoned as he was honoured with a medal and a role in a film, even becoming part of England's celebrations when they won the tournament. (Photo: A general interior view of Dallas Stadium in Dallas, United States, on June 27, 2026, ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group J match between Jordan and Argentina. Credit: Ahmad Alameen/Getty Images)

  6. Jul 10

    Originals

    It's nearly 20 years since Wimbledon decided to award equal prize money. The tennis world has come a long way since a group of women players known as "The Original 9" eventually forced the creation of a Women's tour. Billie Jean King was the most famous of the Original 9, but Julie Heldman was also one of the nine, and her mother, Gladys, also played a crucial role... I've been speaking to Julie about that and what life was like as a top female tennis player back in the later 1960's. But Julie's story is made all the more remarkable when you learn about what life was really like with Gladys Heldman as your mother behind closed doors... and I should warn you, I found much of what Julie had to say very hard to listen to.  Before the original tournament was held in the States in 1994, there was no professional league, but the popularity of the world Cup spawned the MLS, one of its first stars was Paul Wright. A goal scoring machine Paul was a pioneer of the game and is still very much involved in his hometown of San Diego, from where he is nurturing the next generation of talent... In the US sports like basketball and American football have free school programmes, playing to a high standard without having to pay. Not so soccer, where you have to join a club in a "Pay to play" system and that can be expensive, anywhere up to $10,000 a year! In Europe that cost tends to be heavily subsidised by professional teams of national federations. It leaves American kids at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder unable to play the game... So, Paul decided to do something about that. Tensions between the United Stated and Iran are not a new thing. Far from it, but could there be a place for football in the road to peace? The Iranian national football team left a note in its locker room at the Los Angeles Stadium after their game against Belgium earlier in the competition, thanking the people of Los Angeles for their hospitality during the World Cup. The note ended "We wish peace, respect, and friendship among all the nations of the world". Well, after the two countries met competitively at the 1998 World Cup in France, a couple of original thinkers organised a friendly match between the two nations. The US would host Iran before a proposed return fixture... This is the story of how that game at the Rose Bowl in California came to pass in the late 1990's The remarkable story of tennis star Liesl Herbst who just after the second world war competed at Wimbledon with her daughter Dorli to play in the ladies' doubles. They remain the only mother and daughter who have competed together at Wimbledon. Felice Hardy, granddaughter of Liesl and daughter of Dorli, and author of "The Tennis Champion Who Escaped The Nazis", told their story to Not by the Playbook's Megan Jones. PHOTO: Top female tennis players hold up their $1 bills which will make them contract pros and eligible to play for money instead of trophies in the Virginia Slims tournament at the Houston Racquet Club in defiance of the USLTA. The players are (standing, L-R) Valerie Ziegenfuss, Billie Jean King, Nancy Richey, Peaches Bartkowicz; (seated, L-R) Judy Tegart Dalton, Kerry Melville, Rosie Casals, manager Gladys Heldman, and Kristy Pigeon. The players breakaway from the tennis establishment eventually lead the way to the formation of the Women's Tennis Association. Not pictured: Julie Heldman. (CREDIT: Bela Ugrin/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

  7. Jul 3

    Two weeks at Wimbledon

    It's one of the most refined sporting venues in the world. Hydrangeas and petunias, complemented by climbing roses and foxgloves, A glorious display of purple white and green. Welcome to South East London and the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club club here in Wimbledon We start with the remarkable story of Andrea Jaeger. Her career burned bright like the star she is, and in a flash it was over. Remarkably she turned pro aged just 14. By 16 she was ranked number two in the world, then she made the French Open final and the following year she did the same at Wimbledon. By 19 she had retired through injury. A bundle of energy and positive vibes Andrea joined us as she watched on from her home in Florida. Within the vast complex of arenas and buildings that make up the All England Club, there's a spot that is unusually quiet, but not for long! The press conference centre, where after each match players are expected to open their souls to journalists and explain how the snatched victory from defeat, or maybe the other way round. Up there on stage behind the microphones can feel like a very lonely place, in fact being on tour can be a very isolating experience. In recent years there has been a trend amongst players, but bring their pet dogs on tour with them! But actually that first happened some time ago! More on that in a moment from our poochie pioneer, who was also a semi finalist here in 1991 beating Andre Agassi and Ivan Lendl on the way... American David Wheaton has been chatting to me from his home in Minnesota about how WImbledon helped him find a higher calling in life Murray Mound, or Henman Hill as it was known actually has the official title of Aorangi Terrace and it's a beautiful spot to enjoy a drink, sit on the grass with friends and watch the action on the big screens mounted on the outside of centre court. It's the sort of place anyone could fall in love with tennis. Something Edward Schmit would approve of. He has just published his first novel "The Open Era" and according to the back cover "combines three things close to Edwards heart: queer love stories, mental health awareness, and the most beautiful sport in the world: tennis... The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum is full of interactive displays that tell the story of the championships from its inception in 1887. One corner of the museum is dedicated to the American tennis player Maureen Connolly. She was the first woman to win the tennis Grand Slam in 1953. That's all four major tournaments in the same year! Nicknamed “Little Mo” after a US warship, Connolly dominated her sport and became a global celebrity, but her career was cut short by injury and she died an early death. PHOTO: An aerial view of Wimbledon's Centre and Number one courts and the grounds (CREDIT: Chris Gorma/Getty Images)

  8. Jun 26

    So much more than sport

    With around 15 tattoos across her arms neck and throat and a habit of wearing temporary tattoos on her face when playing, it's fair to say Oleksandra Oliynykova has a distinctive look. But she also has a fearsome will to win, and is knocking on the door of the top 50, in women's tennis. Born in Ukraine, when war broke out in 2014, she escaped to Croatia. It was there that her tennis career flourished. Now aged 25 she is back living and training in Ukraine, making her the only professional tennis player doing so. Oleksandra has been telling us she believes many more of her fellow players should be more vocal on the subject or the Ukraine war. The Klitschko brothers Wladimir and Vitali, dominated the heavyweight boxing division during a period known simply as "the Klitschko era" When Vitali hung up his gloves in 2012 he entered another bruising profession - politics. In 2014, Vitali was elected the Mayor of Kiev, a position he has held ever since. He has become a symbol of resistance and explained the daily struggles the people of the city of Kiev face Karate has only ever been an Olympic discipline once. Perhaps unsurprisingly in Tokyo at the Games a few years ago. So to win an Olympic medal in the sport is an extremely rare event. So imagine working your whole life to win that and then to give it away! Well that is exactly what Stanislav Horuna did. A Bronze medallist in the "Kumite" 75 kg category within weeks he had auctioned it off to raise for finances to help Ukraine's war effort. Spring forward to 2026 and much to Stan's surprise he has been given his medal back. He's been explaining how. When Shakhtar Donetsk won the Uefa Cup in 2009, it was meant to be the start of a new chapter for independent Ukraine. However, when war broke out in 2014, the team's ambitions were put on hold. The club captain, Darijo Srna, has been explaining how he and his family coped in the aftermath (Photo: Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine competes in the Billie Jean King Cup, 11 April, 2026. Credit: Marcin Golba/Getty Images)

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About

Inspirational stories from around the world. Interviews with people defying the odds. Discover Not by the Playbook - the podcast which seeks out the most incredible stories from sportspeople and athletes. We bring you interviews with the sporting heroes who have achieved success in the face of seemingly impossible challenges. Hear from some of the most famous names in sport on subjects you've never heard them discuss before. You don't have to be an Olympic champion to have an extraordinary story – we also scour the globe for inspiring individuals who make a difference through sport. Whether you’re a football or soccer fan, tennis lover, golf aficionado or cricket addict, or even if you're not a sports fan at all, you’ll find inspiration in the stories of resilience, determination, and discipline. Expect insightful, honest, and thought-provoking conversations from people who live and breathe sport. Listen to Not by the Playbook on the BBC World Service every Saturday at 0900 GMT, or find it as a podcast wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Information

  • Creator
    BBC World Service
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    585
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2026
  • Show Website
    Not by the Playbook

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