EPISODE · Aug 10, 2024 · 50 MIN
The Olympic deep dive
from Not by the Playbook · host BBC World Service
To the Paris pool next where The Chinese divers have again dominated the medals at the Paris Games, but they still have some way to overshadow Greg Louganis of the United States... widely regarded as the greatest diver of all time. Louganuis won DOUBLE gold at his home games in Los Angeles in 1984 and repeated that feat in Seoul four years later. But it's for a dive that went spectacularly wrong for which he is best remembered. At the '88 games he cracked his head open on the springboard. falling unceremoniously into the water... Remarkably, he brushed himself off and STILL went on to win gold. Greg has been speaking to Sportshour's Olympic reporter Joel Hammer, starting with the silver he won as a 16 year old in Montreal back in 1976: One man with a keen eye on the boxing later will be Maurice Hope. A former world champion, he fought at the 1972 Olympics in Munich for Great Britain. Those Munich Olympics will always be overshadowed by The Munich massacre, one of the darkest chapters in Olympic history... when eleven members of the Israeli team were taken hostage and killed... inside the Olympic village, by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group. For Maurice those dark nights will live with him forever. Maurice Hope MBE has written a book about his life called "Land of Hope and Glory: The Windrush Kid Who Conquered The World". He talks about his journey from Antigua aged just nine... and moving with his family as part of the Windrush generation to the U.K when Caribbean people were invited to help rebuild the British economy after World War II.Plus, a true pioneer of the Olympic spirit and in particular women's sport. The Olympics of 2024 are the first with equal representation of male and female athletes, and the journey to equality, in part, is thanks to Alice Milliat's lobbying in the early 1900s. But who was Alice? A statue of Alice stands outside the headquarters of the French Olympic Committe and a book about her life has just been released called " La Vie Jamais Racontée: Alice Milliat, a French Heroine and Sporting Suffragette'. Its author is Nancy GillenThroughout the Olympics we've been hearing from Dr Lindsay Krasnoff, expert in sport diplomacy specialising in France and in particular basketball. So what better way to end her Sportshour postcards from the Games than by previewing both Men's and women's upcoming basketball gold medal matches between the mighty USA and the hosts France. It's the hottest ticket in town!Photo: Greg Louganis of the United States prepares to dive in the Men's 10-metre Platform diving competition during the XXIV Olympic Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea. (CREDIT: Pascal Rondeau/Allsport/Getty Images)
What this episode covers
To the Paris pool next where The Chinese divers have again dominated the medals at the Paris Games, but they still have some way to overshadow Greg Louganis of the United States... widely regarded as the greatest diver of all time. Louganuis won DOUBLE gold at his home games in Los Angeles in 1984 and repeated that feat in Seoul four years later. But it's for a dive that went spectacularly wrong for which he is best remembered. At the '88 games he cracked his head open on the springboard. falling unceremoniously into the water... Remarkably, he brushed himself off and STILL went on to win gold. Greg has been speaking to Sportshour's Olympic reporter Joel Hammer, starting with the silver he won as a 16 year old in Montreal back in 1976: One man with a keen eye on the boxing later will be Maurice Hope. A former world champion, he fought at the 1972 Olympics in Munich for Great Britain. Those Munich Olympics will always be overshadowed by The Munich massacre, one of the darkest chapters in Olympic history... when eleven members of the Israeli team were taken hostage and killed... inside the Olympic village, by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group. For Maurice those dark nights will live with him forever. Maurice Hope MBE has written a book about his life called "Land of Hope and Glory: The Windrush Kid Who Conquered The World". He talks about his journey from Antigua aged just nine... and moving with his family as part of the Windrush generation to the U.K when Caribbean people were invited to help rebuild the British economy after World War II.Plus, a true pioneer of the Olympic spirit and in particular women's sport. The Olympics of 2024 are the first with equal representation of male and female athletes, and the journey to equality, in part, is thanks to Alice Milliat's lobbying in the early 1900s. But who was Alice? A statue of Alice stands outside the headquarters of the French Olympic Committe and a book about her life has just been released called " La Vie Jamais Racontée: Alice Milliat, a French Heroine and Sporting Suffragette'. Its author is Nancy GillenThroughout the Olympics we've been hearing from Dr Lindsay Krasnoff, expert in sport diplomacy specialising in France and in particular basketball. So what better way to end her Sportshour postcards from the Games than by previewing both Men's and women's upcoming basketball gold medal matches between the mighty USA and the hosts France. It's the hottest ticket in town!Photo: Greg Louganis of the United States prepares to dive in the Men's 10-metre Platform diving competition during the XXIV Olympic Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea. (CREDIT: Pascal Rondeau/Allsport/Getty Images)
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The Olympic deep dive
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