Skiing and two-headed dogs

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about the famous ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb.

In 2003, the venue won its bid to host the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. Hugh Smythe, known as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Whistler, has been sharing his memories of the mountain. We also have former Winter Olympian and BBC presenter, Chemmy Alcott, to walk us through the long history of skiing.

Plus, how the tiny island nation of American Samoa suffered the worst defeat ever in international football.

Also, the shocking creation of a two-headed dog by a Soviet scientist.

The murder of transgender woman in Honduras during a military coup in 2009.

And, a long-running dispute over the final resting place of Christopher Columbus’ ashes.

Contributors: Hugh Smythe — One of the ‘founding fathers’ of Whistler. Chemmy Alcott — Former Winter Olympian and TV presenter. Nicky Salapu—American Samoa goalkeeper. Igor Konstantinov — Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon. Claudia Spelman — LGBT activist. Angelita Baeyens — Human rights lawyer. Samuel Bisono — Tour guide and historian.

(Photo: Whistler Blackcomb ski resort. Credit: James MacDonald/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	We lost our humanity. We lost our dignity. We got punished for something we did not do.
0:07.0	Amazing sports stories from the BBC World Service tells the story of the Black 14.
0:12.0	Our young lives were flipped upside down. Search for amazing sports
0:15.8	stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:20.3	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service
0:27.1	with me Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:31.6	Coming up, the murder of a transgender woman in Honduras during a military coup in
0:36.1	2009 and how that helped change the law on LGBT rights in that country.
0:45.0	There was some always seen as something up normal.
0:50.0	Also a Soviet scientist's shocking experiment to create a living two-headed dog.
0:55.0	It was proclaimed by officials to be a charlatan and his experiments were banned.
1:05.0	And the American Samoa national team who suffered the worst ever defeat in international football.
1:11.0	We ended up like select kids from high school and we have like the
1:16.4	eight-graders from primary school. So we trained for one week before we travel to
1:20.3	Australia. That's all coming up later in the podcast, but first we're going skiing.
1:26.0	Resorts around the world compete for the rights to host the Winter Olympic Games.
1:31.0	A winning bid can bring huge publicity and lucrative business in future years.
1:36.5	But getting to host an Olympic Games can be a long haul, as Hugh Smyth of the Whistler Mountain Ski
1:42.2	Resort in Canada knows all too well.
1:45.0	Matt Pintas has his story.
1:47.0	I was standing in Whistler Square with, oh I'm guessing maybe 5,000 other people and we had a big screen up and
1:56.6	we had our delegation back in Prague where it was going to be announced and we were all waiting to hear as they were going through the voting.
	...

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