Unsung

Alexis James
Unsung

Introducing Unsung, a podcast about the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss. Join sports writer Alexis James as he goes behind the scenes of professional sport, looking beyond the headlines to introduce and celebrate its hidden stars. Meet athletics starters, snowmakers, F1 mechanics, guide runners, and unheralded athletes as Unsung shines a rare spotlight on the integral men and women in the shadows, interwoven in the fabric of sport. For while its biggest stars and household names enjoy the glory, tucked away amid sport’s small print and voiceless under its fanfare is a band of unsung heroes rarely acknowledged, let alone championed. And it's about time that changed. Follow or subscribe to the podcast, and head to unsungpodcast.com for more. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

  1. 11月18日

    In Deep: A Day in the Life of a Volunteer Lifeguard

    This is Unsung. Introducing the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss.  In the UK alone, over four million people participated in some form of swimming in 2023.  And while the pandemic prompted a flurry of pool closures that continue today, many defied this worrying trend by heading for a dip outdoors in lakes, rivers, lochs, and seas. Over half a million of us took a dip in open water last year.  And yet, in a twisted irony, Covid-19 also triggered a shortage of qualified lifeguards to keep us safe. And so, in this episode of Unsung, we meet some of the country’s best lifeguards to discover why they do what they do, and to see if we can’t persuade a few more to follow their lead… Many thanks Fay Tennet and her lifeguarding team at the Great North Swim for having me tag along as they went about their work with such diligence and expertise.  My thanks also to the Royal Lifesaving Society for their help and support, and of course to the organisers at the Great North Swim for letting me come along. Head to the links below to find out more about taking part in the Great North Swim or how to sign up as a volunteer lifeguard. Quotes: "I'm a sort of serial volunteer, so I just keep saying yes to stuff. It's great. And it does bring a huge amount of experience of things that you never even think about. For me, my personal drive is that I want to help people love what I love." "Everyone's got a different story to what brought them to the water's edge. But all those stories have got a common thread, which is that We're all just human and we're all just trying to be better people. So that's why I came here today, just to kind of affirm that. And it's nice to give back." "I'd always encourage people to volunteer; you get a lot out of it." "Your days can be really long and really boring and wet and windy, and then within a millisecond something happens, and you've got to be on it. One minute you might be chatting to swimmers and saying, 'Oh, have a nice swim, isn't it lovely?' And the next minute you're being alerted to a medical emergency. And you are part of a team that is responding to basically save somebody's life. It really brings it home to the reason you're there." "Everything in life is quite heavy for a lot of people. Being in the outdoors is risky. But it's not risky if you do it in the right way. And this event is the right way to do it. You know, and that's why we're here today." Explore more Bored Olympic lifeguard at Rio 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2016/live-updates/rio-games/scores-and-latest-news/olympic-swimming-lifeguards-are-real-and-theyre-spectacularly-bored/ Great North Swim: Sign up https://www.greatswim.org/great-north-swim RLSS water safety event volunteer https://www.rlss.org.uk/event-water-safety-volunteer RLSS: the Water Safety Code https://www.rlss.org.uk/the-water-safety-code Swim England: Volunteering https://www.swimming.org/careers/volunteering/ STA: How to become a swimming teacher  a...

    56 分钟
  2. 8月31日

    Eyes on the Prize: The Hidden World of Paralympic Guides

    This is Unsung. Introducing the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss.  There are hundreds of visually impaired athletes around the world who aren’t able to see the finish line yet can complete a race quicker than most of us can tie our shoelaces.  Some run far, rather than fast. Some even try swimming or cycling. That they’re able to do so is thanks to a largely undocumented partnership that deserves a bit more love and attention. And so, in this new episode of Unsung, we’re delving into the hidden world of para sport guides. We speak to visually impaired Welsh sprinter James Ledger, along with his Scottish guide Greg Kelly, to discover the nuances and challenges involved in building a strong relationship both on and off the track.  We also speak to American triathlete and Ironman legend Ben Hoffman, as he embarks on a new career as a guide for Owen Cravens, one of the USA’s brightest talents in the paratriathlon.  Many thanks to all the athletes who spoke to us between their training and events, and best of luck to them in their future events. Head to the links below to find out more about becoming a para guide.   Quotes:James “For me growing up it was very much around fitting in and not standing out for having a disability.” “I went down to my local Swansea Harriers track and from that moment on, I became obsessed with trying to be as fast as I could be.” “It’s never nice hearing your sight is getting worse, but thankfully, in the amazing world we live in para sport, I'm still able to do the sport I love.” “One of the biggest challenges to T11 running is finding a guide. It’s tough to find somebody who's fast enough because I need a guide runner who can pretty much run a second faster than me, so that they can run within themselves, control me to run straight, and also communicating as much as possible throughout the race.” “I’m really grateful for Greg joining me on my journey. Because he definitely came at my hour of need.” "The amount of trust I have to put into Greg to allow me to run as fast as I can in a straight line in the dark. Having that relationship is vital.” “I'll always aim to promote guide runners because I think they're incredible people, you know, they allow people like me to follow their dreams. I think they should be really championed as very much the unsung heroes of my sports”   Greg “It’s almost like riding a bike, the faster you're going, the more stable it feels. Sometimes with jogging and drills, that's actually the hardest in terms of timing. When we're running fast, it's more normal to keep the arms pumping and legs coming up.” “The trajectory was just going up and up, with some of our best races being in Switzerland and Paris big. It was great to be given that opportunity and in Switzerland, where we got a PB for James, a British record.” “James said that he doesn't want me to stop competing and striving for my individual aspirations, but it's something that can develop both of us. So hopefully that’s something that breaks the stereotype that if you're a guide runner, you're only a guide runner.”   Ben “It's rewarding. It feels good to contribute to somebody else's dreams and goals. Because I can remember what it was like to be that age and it's a special time to be setting out on that mission, on that career that's in front of you.”  “The first race we did in Tasmania I made a mistake, and I actually did an extra lap on the bike of the 20k course, and so we went from...

    58 分钟
  3. 7月25日

    Beyond Borders: A Refugee’s Journey to the Olympic Games

    This is Unsung. Introducing the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss. In this opening episode of a new series of Unsung, we’re telling the story of the IOC’s Olympic Refugee Team.   This year, the Olympics will feature 36 athletes from 11 different countries of origin, competing in 12 different sports. At the Paralympics, eight athletes and one guide runner will make up the refugee team   This will be the team’s third appearance at the Games, after making its debut in Rio in 2016. Back then, there were close to 60 million displaced people globally. On the eve of Paris 2024, that number has now soared to well over 100 million and is still rising – that’s around 1 in 70 people living on our planet. Putting them all in one place would create the 14th most populous country in the world – and that population is increasing all the time.   But especially in a year typified by highly emotive elections all over the world, there is a tendency to distil the topic of refugees and immigration to faceless numbers and dispassionate data. But each statistic has a human story behind it. You’ll hear a couple of those in this episode.   Matin Balsini and Dorsa Yavarivafa were both born in Iran, the country where almost half of this year’s Refugee Team comes from Iran, giving some indication as to just how bad the situation is for Iranian athletes.    The Iranian government exerts significant control over sports and often uses athletes for political propaganda, enforcing strict compliance with its ideological mandates. Those who dissent or fail to conform face dire consequences.    It’s a repressive environment that stifles freedom of expression and forces many talented athletes to defect in search of safety and the liberty to compete without political interference. Athletes like Matin and Dorsa, who share their painful experiences and emotional journeys in finding a new home in the UK, and the stories of their successful route to the Olympics in Paris.   Many thanks to Matin and Dorsa for speaking to us just weeks before their appearance in Paris, and to the IOC for facilitating the interviews.    Quotes: Matin "The one thing I really love about swimming is when you are in the water you cannot hear anything, you basically cannot see anything. And you can scream and no one can hear you."   "At 17, I decided to coach myself. And the hardest thing was, after one year when I improved a lot, the coaches were jealous. They didn't want me to improve because they thought that it made them look small."   "During the session I'd be swimming alone in the pool, and they would just turn the lights off.I had to swim in the darkness."   “I'm so happy that I am going to the Olympic Games and I'm super excited as well. But it's a bit sad for me because I can’t represent my nation anymore.”   Dorsa “All I had with me for a whole year was my racket. It was just me, my racket, and my mom."   "I was about 14 when we left. It was really hard because I had to leave my family and my friends. I was quiet, depressed, and sad at first, because I was really shocked. But I had to do it, it just wasn't safe for my mom and me to stay in Iran."   "We tried to go, and they pointed a gun at us. They thought we were armed. And then they put us in jail. They separated me from my mom, which was really difficult. I remember how scared I was then. Imagine a 15-year-old girl being away from her mom in a jail. It was the worst nightmare of my life."   "Imagine representing your own country, there is such a power in that. But I'm not

    51 分钟
  4. 1月17日 · 附赠内容

    Vote for Unsung in the 2024 Sports Podcast Awards!

    Hello and Happy New Year! It’s Alexis here from Unsung with our first ever public service announcement.   At the end of our last episode in December, I mentioned that you’d next hear from us in the Spring. But while we continue to work on series 2, forgive me for jumping on the feed a little earlier than planned.   Because, like a school kid eager to show their parents their “cleaned my plate” lunch sticker, I wanted to share the news that Unsung has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2024 Sports Podcast Awards.   After our rookie season, we’ve been nominated in the Sports Talk Podcast category, pitted against the likes of football legend Ian Wright, top broadcasters Kate Abdo and Simon Jordan, snooker player Shaun Murphy, and three sporting titans from across the Atlantic who’ve nearly 5m followers between them.   And then there's little ol' Unsung. Think David and Goliath, except we’re not David; we’re David’s annoying little dog, yelping for scraps and attention when he goes off to chin the big guys.   Although it’s fair to say we’ve had a little more attention since our nomination. A new listener recently tweeted us to say our last episode was like, “if you purchased Roy Chubby Brown off of Wish, you would get this guy”. But hey, that counts as a download.    For anyone else who has enjoyed any of our episodes in the last year, we'd love your vote! You’ll find the link in the show notes, or head to www.SportsPodcastGroup.com and you’ll find us among the shortlist for the best Sports Talk Podcast.   Finally, a thank you to all our guests, whose generosity of time and entertaining yarns are the reason our fledgling podcast has been recognised by the industry.    And another big thank you goes to you for listening and to anyone who has subscribed, reviewed, or spread the word about Unsung. This knock-off, Roy Chubby Brown, really appreciates it.   Thanks for your vote, and we’ll be back in the Spring with some new episodes of Unsung - introducing the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss.   Vote for Unsung at the 2024 Sports Podcast Awards   Click here to vote for Unsung: https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-sports-talk-podcast/   Buy the book!   Unsung: Not All Heroes Wear Kits, by Alexis James http://www.unsungbook.com   Host: Alexis James Producer: Matt Cheney Artwork: Matt Walker Executive Producer: Sam Barry This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

    2 分钟
  5. Our Top Sports Stories of 2023: The Unsung Year in Review

    2023/12/04

    Our Top Sports Stories of 2023: The Unsung Year in Review

    With 2023 coming to a close, there’s something a little different for you in this rather frenetic episode of the Unsung podcast. In just 40 minutes, we rattle through the sporting year via the perspective of its unsung heroes, beginning way back in January at a boisterous and disbelieving darts crowd in Ally Pally, before ending with a tenuous reference to the late Mystic Meg to review a sporting event that is yet to occur. You’ll also discover the Augusta National golf legend you're unlikely to have heard of, find out why Phil Foden can’t stop eating salmon and soy, and discover a good reason to raid the drinks globe for the winter's first drop of snow.  If you’ve listened to previous Unsung episodes, you might recognise some of the voices featured here. We’ve got anecdotes and insight for every month of the year, and if you’d like to hear more from anyone involved, be sure to check out episodes 1 to 9 from our archive. It all makes for a whistlestop tour of 2023, and I think you’ll enjoy it. If you do, please consider leaving a review to help others discover it. And if you know of someone who’d make a good subject for a future Unsung podcast, get in touch with a recommendation at unsungpodcast.com.  Quotes:  “The real skill in my job is you wait until everybody is at the pinnacle of their set position and they have all been absolutely still in that position. And when you're happy that they've all had that opportunity to get into the still position and concentrate, you pull the trigger. It's fair to say probably at a major event between set and pulling the trigger, I'm holding my breath. I'm holding my breath, because I'm praying I don't have to pull the other trigger."  “Climate change is real. It’s something that’s very heavily linked to snowmaking, which is becoming more popular with resorts just to ensure that they can open for their customers and provide a great experience. Instead of having snow machines that are 100 to 150 metres apart from each other, they’re going to 20 to 50 metres apart. You’re getting snow guns that are closer and closer. That has been a trend that we’ve been seeing in this industry.”  “Last season, it was absolute chaos because of the World Cup. Quite a lot of people thought, "well, I'll go to the World Cup, I'll come back a mega star and PSG or Real Madrid will be on the phone, and it's the transfer window immediately afterwards." So when people came back from the World Cup, they were like, "oh Real Madrid's not on the phone. I haven't heard from Barca. Uh, I guess I'm staying. Better get a chef then."  "I built my business, and I wasn't going to let any of these guys [dopers] ruin it for me. So, I found a way of enjoying it, of getting over the shock and any disappointment and just moving on. And cycling's also a sport which is very beautiful. Um, I don't just mean the scenery, I mean the beauty of riding a bicycle is a very beautiful thing."  “In groundsmanship, everybody knows if you let the underdogs train on the pitch first, they're going to do it over because that's going to give them an advantage, to make the pitch bobbly. So, Portsmouth came and hammered it, then did a penalty shoot-out. Then Petr Cech came on and said, 'why am I playing on a potato field?'."   Charity Partner Leading social care charity Community Integrated Care delivers 10 million hours of care annually to people with learning disabilities, autism, mental health concerns, dementia, and complex care needs. Their revolutionary ‘Inclusive Volunteering’ model sees it partner with top sporting events to tackle society’s deepest inequalities, enabling thousands with complex barriers to enjoy sport. To find out more about the charity, visit a...

    41 分钟
  6. Interview: Touring with England’s Cricketers, with Phil Neale

    2023/10/30

    Interview: Touring with England’s Cricketers, with Phil Neale

    Our guest this time around is Phil Neale, who enjoyed a 47-year career in professional sport. Having played 369 games for Lincoln City and 354 first-class matches for Worcestershire; he’s believed to be the last man to play both professional football and professional cricket at the same time. But it’s his post-playing role that we’re mostly discussing in this episode, first as county-level coach and then with the England A setup, before moving on to become England cricket’s first-ever operations manager. Appointed to help out Duncan Fletcher and captain Nasser Hussain in 1999, it’s a role he stayed in for over 20 years, encompassing 257 Test matches, 422 ODIs and 110 T20Is. He was also there throughout the tenure of six head coaches and 11 Test captains. During our chat, which took place as the early stages of the 2023 Cricket World Cup unfolded in India, the man who became known to England’s top cricketers as Uncle Phil talked about his versatile yet integral role behind the scenes. He recalls his memorable experiences, including five Ashes series victories, the 2010 T20 World Cup triumph, and, of course, the famous 2019 World Cup win at Lords. Phil describes being peppered in the nets by Freddie Flintoff, navigating a floundering Michael Vaughan through an Indian airport, and revealing which cricketer’s bag was the only one he lost in over two decades. There are also tales from that infamous Germany boot camp ahead of the 2010 Ashes and the time he tried his best to keep a lid on post-World Cup celebrations in 10 Downing Street. Many thanks to Phil for taking the time out to speak to me, and also to Luke Thornhill and Donald Nannestad at Lincoln City for putting me in touch with their former player. If you know of someone who’d make a good subject for a future Unsung podcast, get in touch with a recommendation at unsungpodcast.com. Quotes: "Alistair Cook sat down with me, towards the end of my time with England, and we were rained off one day, and he said, 'come on Phil, let's work out how many days you've spent on a sports field'. And we worked it out that I'd spent basically 10 years of my life, 24 hours a day, day and night, on a cricket field. Never mind getting into the football."  "I really enjoyed those first five years with Duncan Fletcher, where I had a fair bit of responsibility on the cricket side as well, I became the throw down guy. I did some throws with Freddie Flintoff, which was a nightmare because Freddy's way of practicing was, I only want to hit straight drives. I just want to hit the ball hard and straight so you throw it and get out the way as quick as you can. I've got quite a few, got quite a few bruises on my shins from Freddie peppering it back at me.   There was one period where he was out of form and then he got some runs in the one-dayseries and won the man of the series and he presented me with his jeroboam of champagne as thanks for getting him into nick. So it was nice when those little bits of appreciation came back."  "Monty Panesar was in front of me. And Monty was on the edge of this cliff facing with his back down the cliff, holding onto the rope. And I watched Monty, and his feet were moving, but he wasn't going backwards. He was walking on the spot. He just couldn't get himself to go over the edge. And I watched him for about five minutes, and he pulled out in the end. And I said, right, I'm ready to go now. And I thought, I can't be any worse than that."  "One of the things I've done since I've retired is look back and see what the common factors are in the teams that have been successful, and the teams that haven't. Good senior players are one, but planning and preparation definitely...

    50 分钟
  7. Interview: Mending the All Blacks, with Doc Mayhew

    2023/09/13

    Interview: Mending the All Blacks, with Doc Mayhew

    It was 200 years ago this year that a young scholar by the name of William Webb Ellis decided to take the game of football into his own hands. Quite literally. He picked up the ball and ran from his opponents and, in doing so, invented what we now know as Rugby. The sport now boasts over half a billion fans across 132 countries, and is played by over eight million people around the world. It's more popular than it's ever been, but there are also questions around its future, with recent concerns surrounding the potential long-term health impacts of playing the game, particularly at an elite level that was professionalised only as recently as 1995. So as the tenth Rugby World Cup takes centre stage, the latest episode of Unsung sees us chat with someone who has witnessed firsthand the transformation of the professional game and who is best placed to discuss its hot-button topic. John Mayhew was doctor to the All Blacks for over 200 matches, beginning in the amateur era in 1988, before moving on to work at rugby league side New Zealand Warriors in 2003. Now in his late sixties, Doc Mayhew continues to be involved in professional level rugby in his home city of Auckland. In our chat, the doc describes tending to legends like Michael Jones, Sean Fitzpatrick, Richie McCaw, and of course, Jonah Lomu - with whom he forged a close bond while treating the winger's genetic kidney disease. We also discuss the perils of treating his own rugby-playing sons, his World Cup memories - not all of them fond - and the challenges of working with the toughest of players who refuse to hear that they're hurt. To no surprise this includes a story about renowned Kiwi hardman Buck Shelford, who once famously finished a game against France without realising one of his testicles had been ripped from his scrotum...  Many thanks to John for his time and insight, and also to Ben at the New Zealand Rugby Foundation for his help facilitating our conversation.  The Foundation advocates for and champions the safety of all players in rugby, and you can find out more about their work via the link below. If you know of someone who’d make a good subject for a future Unsung podcast, get in touch with a recommendation at unsungpodcast.com. Quotes: “The spectrum of injuries has changed. The training has made them bigger and stronger, and the collisions are that much harder, and there's a lot more collisions. You get props and locks now who are making upwards of 20 tackles a game. In my day, if you're a lock or a prop it's pretty unlucky if you had to make two or three tackles in a game. You went into a lot of rucks, you did a lot more running. So the game has changed, and the injury pattern has changed as well.” “I think we've got to be very careful here and look at the science rather than the emotion. And I get concerned. I mean, getting hit on the head is not good for you, that's rule number one. And rugby's tried to make the game safer by outlawing and managing the acute head injury much better.” “In the Seventies and Eighties the management of concussion wasn't as good, and rugby league was even worse. But we've tidied that aspect of the game up now, we are managing head injury. And believe me, as a practicing sports medicine doctor, the management of a concussed player is one of the hardest parts of the job.” “You do develop a relationship with these players, but as a rugby doctor you've gotta still think, okay, this may be the most famous rugby player in the world, but he's still a patient. And as a doctor you're on the field sometimes and you think, ‘well, I know the state of the game, if I take Richie McCaw off, that could affect the outcome of the game.’ But if he has to come off, he has to come off. And you've gotta put your team...

    43 分钟
  8. Interview: The Performance Chef Fuelling the Premier League, with Rachel Muse

    2023/08/11

    Interview: The Performance Chef Fuelling the Premier League, with Rachel Muse

    In 2007, Harry Redknapp was asked about the importance he places on the diet of his footballers. He said: “If you can’t pass the ball properly, a bowl of pasta’s not going to make that much difference.” Well, it’s fair to say attitudes have changed a little in the Premier League, and as it makes its return for the 2023/24 season, in this episode we speak to a performance chef who, for over a decade, has been feeding and fuelling the country’s top footballers in the surroundings they’re most comfortable in - their home.  Rachel Muse began her career as a chef at some of the UK’s best-known hotels before she traded in the mania of hospitality for the altogether more personal setting of private dining. With her company Discreet and Delicious, she now trains performance chefs to ready them for the unique challenge of one-to-one catering for sport’s most famous faces. We discuss the intriguing dynamic between chef, footballer, and the vital third ingredient, the club nutritionist. Rachel reveals her joy of cooking for a wide variety of nationalities, explains why it's important to stay out of the family domestics, and describes why she regularly finds herself on the phone to footballers’ mothers. She also ensures that we will never get my hands on a Nando’s black card. If you’d like to make our jobs easier and you know of anyone with a unique perspective from behind the scenes of elite sport, get in touch with a recommendation for a potential future Unsung interview or story. Just head to unsungpodcast.com where you can suggest a guest.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast to be the first to know about new episodes.  Quotes: "There's a great nutritionist called Graham Close who's up at Liverpool, John Moores. And he told me his phrase for this is the stealth vegetable. So grating courgettes into bolognaises and grating carrots into things. Cook that down. No one knows they've ever been there. People go, "I don't eat vegetables." And he's like "mate, I'm sorry to tell you, but you do now." There's a certain amount of espionage that does go on." “Last season, it was absolute chaos because of the World Cup. Quite a lot of people thought, "well, I'll go to the World Cup, I'll come back a mega star and PSG or Real Madrid will be on the phone, and it's the transfer window immediately afterwards." So when people came back from the World Cup, they were like, "oh Real Madrid's not on the phone. I haven't heard from Barca. Uh, I guess I'm staying. Better get a chef then." "In the course of the whole day, maybe nobody listens to you. Nobody. Everyone's telling you what to do, do. Everybody wants something out of you, like sign this for me. You can feel really unconnected. When I ask somebody what they want for their dinner, I write it down, and I show them that I've listened to them, because I put in front of them what they have asked for. And that is a great bond of trust between two human beings. A huge thing to do. It's in the format of food but it's just a comforting, life affirming, connection between two human beings." "Particularly what people will say is, "when I was a little boy I came back from training, and my gran used to make me this with that. And you're like, okay, can you describe it a bit more? No, I'll tell you what, I'll get my mum on the phone, and she'll explain it to you." "I think players understand that it's an investment. And if you can extend your playing life and your recovery, the pain in your knees, the pain in your hip, the pain in your ankles, if you can keep the machine moving in a kind of pain-free way just for one more season. Part of that is eating well and recovering well and sleeping well." Explore more Discreet and Delicious...

    48 分钟

关于

Introducing Unsung, a podcast about the sports stars you don’t know, telling the stories you can’t miss. Join sports writer Alexis James as he goes behind the scenes of professional sport, looking beyond the headlines to introduce and celebrate its hidden stars. Meet athletics starters, snowmakers, F1 mechanics, guide runners, and unheralded athletes as Unsung shines a rare spotlight on the integral men and women in the shadows, interwoven in the fabric of sport. For while its biggest stars and household names enjoy the glory, tucked away amid sport’s small print and voiceless under its fanfare is a band of unsung heroes rarely acknowledged, let alone championed. And it's about time that changed. Follow or subscribe to the podcast, and head to unsungpodcast.com for more. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

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