Women’s sport is celebrating not just in the UK but around the world as football fans watched England defeat Germany 2-1 after extra-time at Wembley Stadium to capture the European Championship this past weekend. The scenes at the North London venue were unprecedented in women’s football with a crowd of 87,192 creating an atmosphere like no other. The chants of ‘football’s coming home’ echoed far and wide as Sarina Weigman’s team did what so few teams have historically been able to in this tournament—they beat eight-time champions Germany. That the game went to extra-time only underscored the Lionesses resilient form that they showed all tournament and served to reinforce the remarkable leadership that is Sarina Weigman. She has empowered her team like no other manager in England’s history and led the team to a European victory, just as she did with her native Dutch team in 2017. The tournament attendance topped 574,875 (In The Netherlands in 2017 it was 240,055) and the UK TV audience reached 17.4 million ( the 2019 Women’s World Cup was 11.7 million). Chris and Nancy share their thoughts on the final and what it will take to keep the momentum going for girls and women in football and beyond. In other news, The Netherlands Annemiek van Vleuten won the inaugural Tour de France Femme. Her compatriot; the legend that is Marianne Vos won three of the stages, plus a second and third finish. Meanwhile in Hungary in motorsports W Series, Alice Powell fended off reigning champion Jamie Chadwick to give Britain a total of five finishers in the top ten. In Birmingham, England last week the Commonwealth Games began and Nancy has news of a cycling controversy. In MMA Brazilian Amanda Nunes regained her Bantamweight title defeating American Julianna Pena in a bloody fight. And as we indicated last week, the UK Rugby Football Union Council voted in favor of updating its gender policy starting with 22/23 season, which excludes transgender men from competing on women’s teams.

Hosts: Chris Stafford & Nancy Gillen
Recorded: August 1, 2022

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