Sporty - Abc Rn

Jessica Fox won the gold medal at Tokyo in the women's canoe slalom. Her father Richard is a former canoe world champion. The two have a bond forged over years of early mornings on rivers and race courses. Dennis Cometti is a much-loved veteran sports broadcaster, best known for his AFL coverage on TV and radio. His son Mark became a professional wrestler in the U.S, before returning to Perth and joining his father in the radio commentary box. 

Why do people rave about the physical and mental health benefits of cold water swimming? Also, do fitness trackers make you more active?

While the Olympic Games were a 19th century invention, the Paralympics didn't get going until well into the 20th century. The stories of three pioneering Australian Paralympians who competed in those early days of international disability sport.

He’s just turned 40. He's been a top tennis player for 20 years and it seems hard to imagine the game without him. Why is Roger Federer so good, so enduring and so popular?

'Older, wiser, slower, stronger' is Dean Karnazes' motto these days. The veteran U.S endurance athlete and New York Times bestselling author has run vast distances everywhere from Death Valley to Antarctica. He says he runs not to live longer, but to live more fully.

If you've been watching the gymnastics at the Olympic Games, you'll be an armchair expert by now on the various events and apparatus. Imagine then if one those pieces of equipment was not properly set up - like, say, at the wrong height? It wouldn't happen, would it? One of the Olympic cycling races is the keirin. It's a version of a Japanese cycling sport that's popular but not altogether respectable

At the 1964 Tokyo Games, the Olympic flame was lit by a young runner, born in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb was dropped there in 1945. What symbolism and stories has this Tokyo Olympic opening ceremony evoked?

Can you change how you think about pain, and therefore your experience of it? In this series, four very different people are each trying to take control of what they can in their lives. So far it's been exercise, diet and sleep. Now, it's pain

There's an awful lot that can keep you awake at night. In this series, four very different people are each trying to take control of what they can in their lives. So far it's been exercise, and diet. Now they discuss their difficulties with sleep - and what sends them into the arms of Morpheus.

Life is full of slings and arrows that are outside of your control. So what about the things that are within your power, to make you feel better? This time the focus is on what you eat and drink. Four people each on a quest to take control of this share their experiences and insights.

Life is full of things that are beyond your control. You lose your job. A relationship ends. Someone dies. Or indeed, there's a global pandemic. So what about the things that are within your power, that can make you feel better? This special series over four weeks in turn focuses on diet, sleep, pain, and in this episode - exercise. They're the controllables.

Swimmer Maddie Groves' raw comments on social media about a culture of 'misogynistic perverts' in sport have focused attention on the lack of women in leadership and top level coaching positions. Can real cultural shifts only happen when this changes? Plus - hurling an axe at a target is a sure-fire way to release any pent-up rage you might be feeling with the world. As a sport, axe throwing is less than 20 years old.

We're living longer, so should we be surprised when a 50 year old wins a major golf tournament, or an athlete competes across multiple Olympic Games? Plus, you know how you can be really sore a couple of days after you've done some new exercise. Why does it happen? Is it bad?

Why are post-match press conferences obligatory for tennis players? For players now used to controlling their own narrative through social media, maybe having to front up to journalists and answer their questions is outdated and intrusive. Plus, is concussion the existential threat that all the football codes face? Do these sports have to do more, not only to protect their players but to safeguard their financial viability, as lawsuits loom?

Sometimes you end up leading a life you never expected to. Tanya Hosch is the first Indigenous person on the AFL's leadership executive. She's got no background in sport, but she's kicking goals, metaphorically. Mel Hoffman had no idea what rugby league was, until she met and married an NRL player. Thus began a life of getting to know this game, warts and all.

Cricket bats have been made from English cricket willow for more than 200 years. A more sustainable and cheaper high-performance bat made from bamboo could disrupt this. But how does any sport decide whether to permit or reject a radical new equipment design?

It's pre-dawn in the middle of winter. Think of plunging into the sea without a wetsuit, especially in parts of the country where the water gets really cold. Surely this can only lead to extreme discomfort, and possible hypothermia?  So why do plenty of people do it, and extol its physical and mental health benefits?

Women's gymnastics is one of the most popular sports, at the Olympic Games. It's also a sport where bullying and abuse is rife - around the world, including Australia. But if you peel back the layers, it's possible to reveal how, step by step, this became a sport vulnerable to a culture of abuse.

Why do the countless public health campaigns encouraging people to be more active tend to fail?

From Gallipoli to Baghdad and Kabul, cricket has been used in warfare for deception, distraction and diplomacy.