Death of a Sports Star

These are the unforgettable, tragic stories of superstars we loved and lost - told as you’ve never heard them before. Expect a new episode every Monday. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where were you, when you heard? In the opening episode of the series, we tell the story of the final act of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant – how it unfolded, what it meant, how we all felt about it. It’s Kobe, but as you’ve never heard him before.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WARNING: this episode includes reference to suicide. The first million-pound black footballer, a pioneer, an unstoppable goalscorer. But Justin Fashanu was more than that too: an adopted kid, a gay man in straight world, a lost soul looking for answers. It’s a story that touches you, troubles you. Did it have to end this way?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you saw it, you couldn’t forget: a jet plane, flying by itself through an empty sky, a sporting superstar on board and no way of reaching him. This is the story of Payne Stewart, a golfer who was brash and brilliant and different and shook up his sport and the world around it: how he lived, and how he died.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marco Pantani was a bike rider who seemed to have reached the summit of his sport. Fans loved his panache, his style, his vulnerability. But with Pantani it was always about the descent rather than the climb - and he would fall further than anyone dared fear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She was the skinny kid from the poor part of LA who grew up to be the fastest woman in history, smashing world records with a look and style that made her unforgettable. But there were many who struggled to believe in her remarkable transformation - and more than two decades after her shock death, the unsettling questions and mysteries around Flo-Jo refuse to disappear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He was the smiley, lovable kid from the country whose cricketing talents took him all the way into the Australia team. But a tragic sporting accident on a seemingly ordinary day meant he would never fulfil that rich potential - and left a sport-obsessed nation devastated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the whole history of boxing, there cannot be a story murkier than Sonny Liston’s. And there’s no sport murkier than boxing. Even when Sonny was heavyweight champion of the world – one of the most famous men on the planet – the public didn’t really know him. He was unloved and unwanted.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s never been a player like Jonah Lomu - what he could do, the impact he had on the world. What few realised is what he’d come through to get there - and what he was going through even as he appeared to be unstoppable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He did things no other football manager had ever done. He came from hardship and took a struggling club to the top of the world. Football saved him, gave him a purpose. All until one dark autumn night when two countries met with so much at stake and the pressure finally became too much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you were asked to design a super-hero to save America, he’d probably look like Pat. But what Pat looks like and who he really is are two very different things. He reads poetry and the Qur'an and the Communist Manifesto. He fights tooth and nail to make it in the NFL, so how did he end up giving it all up to join the army and risk getting killed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WARNING: this episode contains references to murder and suicide. In professional wrestling, you don’t know where fantasy ends and reality starts. But Chris Benoit was a method actor. He liked realness. And after years of drugs and injuries, that had deadly consequences. If you’ve been affected by any of the issues spoken about in this podcast, please go to crowdnetwork.co.uk/helplines to find a list of people you can go to for help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vitas Gerulaitis is the New York native turned global celebrity. The immigrant outsider shaking up an establishment sport. Living as large as the Times Square billboards. But when the money is spent, and the momentum slows, what’s left? And when you live as fast as Vitas, can you hold fast to anything? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all know that old line about football and life and death. But in Colombia in the 1990s - run by drug cartels - nothing makes sense. And when a footballer for the national side makes a critical mistake, the repercussions will echo around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WARNING: this episode contains references to suicide. Robert Enke needs to talk. But it's harder than it looks. Especially with all that baggage from the past and worries about the future. He's the kid from East Germany who made it to the Bundesliga. But he's also the man who's tormented by inner-demons - even if you can't quite see it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Sarah's the reason we're all here. Without Sarah, none of us would be Olympians" - that's what Sarah Burke did for her sport, even after her death. She was a trailblazer, a daredevil and a star of the X Games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hansie Cronje was South Africa’s captain, endorsed by Nelson Mandela. But he was also a scam artist, mixing with criminals. His story has lies, greed, bribery, threats, corruption and ultimately a plane crash that ended his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you think about how Diego Maradona lived, and died - when you think about how he’s remembered, why there’s so much love and hate - it all comes down to the story of few short years in the city of Naples. How he came back, the miracles he pulled off, the price he paid. He gets higher than anyone else, and he falls faster. That’s Diego. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Duncan Edwards was the complete footballer. A comic-book hero leaping into the sports pages. He could’ve changed it all. Could've been the greatest footballer of all time. But we never got to find out. It was all lost in a mess of snow and fire and broken steel on a frozen German runway.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ayrton Senna was more than just the greatest racing driver who ever lived. He made cars dance. One rival said he made cars move like raindrops on a pavement. So good, he made us all poets. But there wasn't anything poetic about Senna’s death. There usually isn’t in motor racing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices