The Sports Whisperer - with Robin Welch cover art

The Sports Whisperer - with Robin Welch

The Sports Whisperer - with Robin Welch

By: Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard
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Step into the inner circle of the global sports industry with host Robin Welch, a seasoned broadcasting executive who pulls back the curtain on the stories you were never meant to hear. Drawing from his own high-stakes experiences, from negotiating deals with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone to launching sports channels across Europe, Robin offers a rare, insider perspective that goes far beyond the headlines. This is the home of "Sports Whisperer," where the business of sport meets the human drama behind the results. Each episode delivers unfiltered access to legends and dealmakers from the past, present, and future. These are not just interviews; they are deep conversations about the personal struggles, the glory, and the pivotal moments that define sporting history. Beyond the nostalgia, Robin dissects the evolving landscape of modern sports, offering critical analysis on everything from the psychology of champions to the shifting trends in global sponsorship and brand intelligence. Whether you are a die-hard fan, an industry professional, or simply a lover of great storytelling, the Sports Whisperer provides the context and intelligence missing from the daily news cycle. Join us for a journey where the real action happens off the field.Solid Gold Podcasts #BeHeard Politics & Government
Episodes
  • 06 A Life Built on Running: Bruce Fordyce's 9 Comrades Wins and Park Run

    06 A Life Built on Running: Bruce Fordyce's 9 Comrades Wins and Park Run
    May 16 2026
    South Africa's greatest ultra-marathon champion in conversation.

    Bruce Fordyce, nine-time Comrades Marathon champion and the man who brought Park Run to South Africa, sits down with Robin for a wide-ranging conversation that spans Gurkha soldiers, the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, a secret world championship 100km race in Stellenbosch, and finishing his 30th Comrades alongside Zola Budd. This episode is for sport lovers who want the insider stories and personal gems that rarely make it into the record books.

    Bruce traces how the 1968 Olympics - Bob Beamon's legendary long jump, Dick Fosbury's back-flip high jump, and East African domination of the distance events - planted the seed that turned a gutsy schoolboy into South Africa's greatest ultra-distance runner. He recalls the intensity of his 1982 Comrades duel with Alan Robb on the down run: shoulder to shoulder for 20 kilometres, the tactical gamble on Fields Hill, and the Pyrrhic cost of pulling away.

    The conversation uncovers a race many South African sports archives have overlooked: an unofficial 1989 world 100km championship in Stellenbosch, assembled as apartheid-era South Africa prepared to re-enter world sport. Bruce won with a world record, beating elite runners from Canada, the USA and Europe, finishing at Coetzenburg Stadium - a track he could never have reached as a short-distance athlete. The price was skipping Comrades that year for the first time.

    Bruce also shares the training philosophy he never changed - the same recipe every year, like Gordon Ramsay building a Michelin-star dish - and explains why genetics guides athletes to their sport, using a chance encounter with Springbok lock Bakkies Botha at Cape Town Airport as a vivid illustration. He describes running the London Marathon with Gordon Ramsay, Ramsay's three Comrades finishes, and what it means mentally to race 90 kilometres at full intensity.

    The episode closes on Bruce's biggest passion today: Park Run South Africa, with 1.7 million registered members and 230 venues, and his vision of 1000 venues and 5 million members across Southern Africa. Robin and Bruce also look ahead to the Commonwealth Games, the 2028 Olympics, and why athletics needs a television revolution. Park Run South Africa - official website · Comrades Marathon - official website · Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn · The Ethics of Sport - Robert Simon, Oxford University Press
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    32 mins
  • 05 Who's a Pretty Boy? Cornish Wrestling, the Ancient Martial Art that Conquered the World - Simon Margetts

    05 Who's a Pretty Boy? Cornish Wrestling, the Ancient Martial Art that Conquered the World - Simon Margetts
    May 5 2026
    2024 world champion Simon Margetts shares 4,000 years of history

    This episode is for sport lovers with a taste for history and a fondness for the gems rarely found in mainstream coverage. Robin sits down with Simon Margetts, 2024 Cornish Wrestling world champion, to uncover one of sport's most remarkable hidden stories: a martial art older than the Greek Olympics that once packed arenas from Cornwall to California, Johannesburg to Japan.

    Simon traces Cornish Wrestling back to the Tailteann Games of ancient Ireland, circa 2000 BC, explaining how the Celtic jacket-grappling tradition spread through Brittany with Cornish settlers around 500 AD, how it likely influenced Jigoro Kano's invention of the judo gi after his 1888 tour of the West, and why medieval knights were explicitly taught to throw opponents using Cornish techniques before finishing them with a blade. References to the 1688 Academy of Armory and a 1679 tournament in St James's Park with a prize fund worth roughly one million pounds today bring the history vividly to life.

    The South Africa connection is a standout segment for any listener with roots in the Witwatersrand. Robin reveals the Cornish origins of Redruth, Alberton, and street names like Padstow Crescent, while Simon shares his database of over 15,000 historical Cornish Wrestling results, including tournament records from Krugersdorp, Vereeniging, Roodepoort, Boksburg, and Johannesburg. Cornish miners travelled specifically to South Africa for the prize money, often paid in chunks of gold, and the last claimed South African heavyweight champion, T.H. Greger of Redruth, Cornwall, held his title as late as 1953.

    The episode closes with a look at the sport's modern revival: the connection to MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training, the role of FILC (Federation International Lutte Celtique), the 10,000-strong Breton wrestling community of Gouren, and why folk wrestling is trending globally. A brief book note on Roy Shaw's bare-knuckle memoir Pretty Boy and a sharp observation on sport, technology, and infrastructure round out the episode. Cornish Wrestling Association · FILC - Federation International Lutte Celtique · Pretty Boy by Roy Shaw (Blake Publishing) · Connect with Simon Margetts on LinkedIn
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    23 mins
  • 04 The Two Peters: Boxing's Cozy Smith Legacy and the Lawless First Tour de France

    04 The Two Peters: Boxing's Cozy Smith Legacy and the Lawless First Tour de France
    Apr 21 2026
    Peter Smith (Independent | Professional Boxing Trainer and Former Heavyweight Contender)

    From Peter Smith in the boxing ring to Peter Cossins' grand race

    This episode is for sports fans who love the raw, unvarnished stories behind the headlines: a South African heavyweight who sparred with the best in America, nearly fought Mike Tyson, and shook hands with Don King in a Beverly Hills hotel room - and a vivid retelling of the chaotic, lawless first Tour de France in 1903. If you grew up watching boxing or cycling and want the behind-the-scenes reality, this one is for you.

    Peter Smith grew up in a boxing household shaped by his father Cozy Smith, a legendary South African fighter who went within a whisker of a world title. Peter traces his own journey from junior amateur champion to professional heavyweight contender: 22 fights, 20 wins, 9 KOs. He recounts his first pro knockout that left his opponent stretchered out of the ring, the Coxsackie virus that wrecked his weight camp before a WBU Super Cruiserweight title shot, and the broken nose he carried into a 10th-round war he still won on points. He describes what it actually feels like to be knocked down for the first time - the physical detachment, the lights, the delayed legs - in terms most fighters never articulate.

    In America, Peter trained under Odell Hadley, the quietly legendary trainer who once worked with Tony Tubbs, and later absorbed the Cus D'Amato peekaboo style under Kevin Young, a trainer who grew up in the D'Amato household. He fought on the undercard of major cards at the Great Western Forum - home of the LA Lakers - beat David Veta on Fox Television, and was on the short list to fight Mike Tyson in China, brokered by Shelley Finkel, before the Don King signing that unravelled everything. The Don King story - the limousine to the Beverly Hills Hotel, the unsigned contract, the signing bonus that never arrived, the missed Tyson fight - is told here in full for the first time.

    Now a trainer of champions, Peter coaches WBC Bridgerweight champion Kevin Arena, heading into a title defence in Belgium against Riot Murray, and heavyweight prospect Keaton Gomes, who reached the WBC Grand Prix semi-finals in Saudi Arabia. He closes with a trainer's philosophy that separates fighters who train with purpose from those who merely keep busy - and explains why skill and intentional development beat raw talent every time.

    The second half of the episode reviews Peter Cossins' book Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep - a vivid account of the 1903 Tour de France, created by Henri Desgrange to boost readership for his magazine L'Auto. Sixty riders, six stages, 2,428 kilometres, fixed-gear bikes weighing up to 17 kilograms, roads designed for horses, riding through the night. The cast includes Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents allegedly traded him for a wheel of cheese, and an assortment of chimney sweeps, circus acrobats and handlebar-moustachioed villains. Robin also covers current rugby controversies: the Springbok bomb squad debate, the proposed Rugby 360 global franchise league, and the upcoming South Africa vs New Zealand quadrennial tour, with a preview of Cornish wrestling world champion Simon Marcus coming in a future episode. Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep by Peter Cossins · WBC Boxing
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    1 hr and 9 mins
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