SportSpiel

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are joined by racing driver Emily Glanvill on episode 32 of SportSpiel. **Feature Interview** On our feature interview section (3:15) Alasdair chats to Emily about her life in motorsport. The Scottish racer is just 19 but has a wealth of talent and is showing great potential for the future - in 2016 she won the Teenage Cancer Trust scholarship and in 2017 she was selected for the Scottish Motor Sports Academy. In this interview Emily takes us through her...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are joined by the co-founder of Totally Runable Natalie Jackson on episode 31 of SportSpiel. **Feature Interview** On our feature interview section (5:24) Will chats to Natalie about Totally Runable as well as the idea behind the #SeeSportyBeSporty campaign. The premise of the campaign - devised by Natalie and former Olympic sprinter Emily Freeman - is a simple one, too increase the visibility of women's sport in the media. Totally Runable conducted their own...

Alasdair Hooper hosts a Judo Special ahead of the 2018 IBSA Judo World Championships with British team member Jack Hodgson. The Rio 2016 Paralympian is one of the more experienced members of the British Judo team selected to compete at this year's World Championships. However, the run up to the tournament has been far from smooth for the 22-year-old who recently underwent elbow surgery. Hodgson has had to contend with a disrupted training programme for the last while but his determination to...

Alasdair Hooper hosts a Judo Special ahead of the IBSA Judo World Championships with British team member Evan Molloy. The 19-year-old from Devizes is the youngest member of the eight-strong British team being sent to the 2018 World Championships in Odivelas, Portugal (held from November 16-18). However, though Molloy may be one of the more inexperienced members he has more than enough determination. Having only started the sport aged 13 after his parents wanted him to lose a few pounds the...

Alasdair Hooper hosts a Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards Special with the founder of the Mintridge Foundation Alex Paske. Alex was always a keen hockey player growing up and set herself dreams of one day playing for England. However, after she failed to make the grade at an England under-16 trial - due to the pressure - she fell out of love with the game and struggled mentally with the personal failure. By her own admission she never truly got better until she set up the Mintridge...

Alasdair Hooper, Will Moulton and episode five guest Niki Kovacs are joined by mental health advocate and cyclist Ryan Anderton on episode 30 of SportSpiel. **Feature Interview** On our feature interview section (4:10) guest interviewer Niki chats to Ryan ahead of his incredible challenge - to cycle 4802 miles in 21 days around the coast of Britain. During their conversation Ryan - aka ReCycleYourself - talks about his daunting challenge, with all proceeds going to the charity Mind, but also...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are joined by mental health activist, environmental campaigner and blogger Lizzie Carr on episode 29 of SportSpiel. On our feature interview section (3:44) Will chats to Lizzie - better known as Lizzie Outside to her followers - about paddleboarding, saving the environment and her cancer diagnosis aged just 26\. The adventurer has three world records to her name, having become the first woman to stand up paddle board the length of England, the English Channel...

Alasdair Hooper hosts a special SportSpiel episode - the 50th ever produced - and is joined by British speed skating star Elise Christie. The 2017 World Champion is one of the best short track speed skaters in the world and has enjoyed phenomenal success. However, in conjunction with her phenomenal talent the self-declared 'goofball' has also endured her fair share of ups and downs with much of it aired in full public view at the Winter Olympics. With every medal achieved on the World and...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are back to bring you episode 28 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: * WADA's controversial decision to reinstate Russia's anti-doping agency (3:58) * The hero that is Kristina Vogel (19:18) Our feature interview section on this episode is with the second most capped player in England Rugby history Tamara Taylor (24:23). Since making her debut aged in 2005, the 36-year-old has won six Six Nations titles – all of which have been Grand Slams – and...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are back to bring you episode 27 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: * Serena Williams, Alize Cornet and sexism in tennis (2:20) * What is wrong with England Cricket's batting? (13:51) Our feature interview section on this episode is with Scottish sabreur Antony Shek (28:32). A former teammate at university with host Alasdair Hooper, Tony decided to take his fencing to the next level and set a challenge of getting to the 2018 Commonwealth Games...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton are back to bring you episode 26 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: * The manic nature of the football transfer window and if it prevents young English players from progressing (2:29) * The legacy of the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup as the Netherlands triumph (20:20) Our feature interview section on this episode is with British wheelchair basketball star and Paralympian Amy Conroy (34:36). At the age of 25, Amy has developed into one of the...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton return to bring you episode 25 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: * What have we learnt from the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia? (2:34) * Are Wimbledon, and tennis as a whole, in need of modernisation? (22:05) Our feature interview section on this episode is with European gold, Olympic bronze and World silver medalist Emily Diamond. (32:20) Before the inaugural Athletics World Cup in London, Emily took time out to chat to the show all about her...

Will Moulton hosts a special episode ahead of the Women's Hockey World Cup, which begins at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London on July 21. With hosts England hoping for success on home turf Will speaks to one of the call-ups to the England squad, Kathryn Lane. From initially believing she might not be good enough to represent her country hard work has paid off for the 23-year-old and she is now focussed on helping her nation achieve success. In her chat on the podcast Kathryn...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton bring you episode 24 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: - If Lizzie Deignan is right to say Chris Froome's reputation has been tarnished (3:16) - The 2018 FIFA World Cup kick-off, including Messi v Ronaldo, teams we are looking forward too and our hopes for England (11:41) Our feature interview section on this episode is with record-breaking sprinter Beth Dobbin. (28:39) After missing the Commonwealth Games by one hundredth of a second Beth has...

Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton bring you episode 21 of SportSpiel. In our first segment we discuss: - If England Rugby Head Coach Eddie Jones' training methods are far too punishing (3:35) - Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid resignation (15:00) - The WSL restructure and the winners and losers (22.04) - The two most improbable finalists in this year's Stanley Cup final (30.51) Our feature interview segment in this episode is with sailor Anna Burnet (40:23). The up-and-coming British Sailing...

In our final Mental Health Awareness special hosts Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton turn from interviewers to interviewees. After a week talking to sports stars about their mental health the podcast hosts turn the questioning on themselves and speak out about their own experiences. For both it is the first time they have spoken openly about it and it also serves as a real lesson as to how hard it is to reveal all. For someone, somewhere, we hope it helps. Follow sportspielpod on social media...

Alasdair Hooper hosts the fifth of our six Mental Health Awareness Week specials. On this episode we are joined by Harrogate Town footballer Chloe Bellerby who recently walked from Leeds to London in aid of the mental health charity Mind. Now 18 years of age Chloe has plenty to look forward to with a fast-approaching football scholarship in the USA coming up. But relatively recently her depression and self-worth was so low she tried to take her own life by overdosing. Now she has turned her...

Will Moulton hosts the fourth of our six Mental Health Awareness Week specials. On this episode we are joined by Great Britain and England hockey star Shona McCallin. As part of the the Rio 2016 gold medal winning team Shona's profile has risen but with that comes plenty of struggles. Social media in particular plays an important part and, thanks to its prominence in every day society, it can easily take over all of our lives. In this episode Shona tells us about her relationship with social...

Alasdair Hooper hosts the third of our six Mental Health Awareness Week specials. On this episode we are joined by the founder of Tough Girl Challenges and the host of the Tough Girl podcast Sarah Williams. Tough Girl Challenges has gone from strength to strength since it was set up by Sarah in 2014 but it has been far from easy. The podcast may now be nominated for the Women's Sports Trust Be a Game Changer awards but the journey it has taken to get there has required mental resilience....

Alasdair Hooper hosts the second of our six Mental Health Awareness Week specials. On this episode we hear from Essex-based powerlifter Sophia Ellis who has battled back from crippling eating disorders. While Sophia may now be the embodiment of a fit and healthy person, from the age of 16 she has had to cope with anorexia and bulimia. In this episode she tells us just what that is like to deal with but also relays just how violent the disorder can be. She also tells us about the help that...