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Amazing Sport Stories

Amazing Sport Stories

BBC World Service

Sport but not as you know it.Forget the champions. Amazing Sport Stories is about courage, underdogs, drama and myths and legends. These are global stories you’ll wish you’d known about and now probably won’t forget. There are other podcasts about gold medals and millionaire superstars. Expect the unexpected. Tales from around the world, all told in mini-seasons and one-off episodes. #AmazingSportStories

Categories: Sports & Recreation

Listen to the last episode:

Heroic wrestler Gholamreza Takhti is dead. Rana Rahimpour goes back to that terrible night in January 1968, hearing from perhaps the last person to see him alive. We speak to his teammate Abdollah Movahed about the immediate impact of his death, and then take a closer look at his relations with Mohammed Reza Shah. Everything in Iran is political, and sport is no exception. To understand why, Rana takes us through the story of Mossadegh, Iran’s National Front, and how the wrestling houses were co-opted by forces much bigger than themselves. She explores Takhti’s own political leanings, as wrestling, politics and power all combine in an explosive and volatile situation, and the many ways that the regime exerts influence on its athletes. Takhti is unstoppable in the ring, but outside of it, gradually everything that makes him a great man is being taken away.

You can listen to this podcast in Persian here: https://www.bbc.com/persian/podcasts/p0703hz7