Trans World Sport | History of the long running TV show

this week Transworld Sports celebrates

its 1500 consecutive program for almost

30 years we've traveled the globe in

search of the best and most interesting

stories from the wide world of sports

it's been a quest that's taken us to

every continent unto over 190 different

countries

we've covered almost every single sport

that there is on earth some incredible

stories are met some fascinating people

along the way

hey I'm Mike Tyson and you're watching

Transworld sports

don't forget hello I'm Roger Federer and

you're watching Transworld sport Oh

Transworld sport welcome back to

Ethiopia again come in this week on

Transworld sports these Transworld

sports the amaryllis Olivia on behalf of

Transworld sport and all of its viewers

I like to present Carl Lewis with

Transworld sports trophy for athlete of

the Year and congratulate him for such a

wonderful season Thank You Leroy it

couldn't come from the better teammate

and of course better friend hi I'm Lance

Armstrong Transworld sports sportsman of

the year except this fool and

so you my team

Thank You trans wells what I'm saying

about the frosting man in the world and

you're watching trans world sports to

live Usain Bolt was just a babe in arms

when Transworld sward first hit

international TV screens 29 years ago it

was 1987 and the world was a very

different place from Reagan and Mikhail

Gorbachev for the most powerful men in

the world communism and the Berlin wall

stood strong

and Nelson Mandela had yet to make his

long walk to freedom with South Africa

still under the apartheid system

Argentina's Diego Maradona was at the

peak of his powers on the football pitch

and in the boxing ring

a young American heavyweight by the name

of Mike Tyson was destroying all comers

it was against this backdrop that

Transworld sport launched in May 1987

from the outset we tried to spot

emerging talent and in our early years

we struck gold we were the first

international TV program to profile the

Williams sisters Venus was 12 and Serena

just 11 their dad Richard revealed to us

the ambitions that he had for his young

daughters to become number one in the

world

and right now see anything that can stop

them I think that they were easy to it

well girls going to be tall they're

extremely fast

they have great groundstrokes and good

flowers they want to play and they're

very happy girl another african-american

father who we met in our early years was

a woods

Earl was convinced that his

fourteen-year-old son Eldrick also known

as Tiger would one day become the

greatest golf of the world has ever seen

the world is ready it is absolutely

ready for a non-white golfer to be

successful the next booming area in the

world for golf is Asia Tiger is already

Asian he is Thai in the United States

Tiger is black so when he wins in the

United States he'll be the first black

golfer to win when he wins a major in in

Asia he'll be the first Asian to win you

see so he can't lose unless he doesn't

win and I don't anticipate him not

winning since I'm like it might be even

bigger than Jack Nicklaus I might be

even bigger than him to the blacks I may

be a sort like a Michael Dern in

basketball was it like that the list of

talented youngsters to have been

profiled on Transworld sport long before

they became superstars is a very long

one he is just a selection how many

famous faces can you spot

once we've watched our new faces reach

their potential we've also had the

privilege of meeting some sporting

legends who are sadly no longer with us

in 2009 we spent time with Spanish

golfers savvy buyers terrace as he was

battling the cancer that would claim his

life I just want to send a message to

all the people that have going through

difficult times like myself or even

tougher that you know you have to fight

you have to fight you have to be strong

because at the end you know and if you

overcome the situation and you win you

know you know when you win it tastes

much sweeter

so please fight and fight never stop

other legendary figures to have allowed

the transfer of sport cameras into their

lives include Dutch track and field star

Fanny blankerscoon and Australian

cricket great Don Bradman in his later

life Bradman was notoriously reclusive

so he were honoured to be welcomed into

his adelaide home

Hungarian footballer Ferrand push cash

and Argentinian motor racing driver Juan

Manuel Fangio also graced this show with

their presence as did American boxer Joe

Frazier as a great fighter a good person

a good guy and get the job in our 1500

episodes the biggest named have appeared

on Transworld sport is unquestionably

Frazier's great rival Muhammad Ali

despite his health problems the greatest

turned up in person to accept our

athlete of the century award in December

1999

along with the famous faces that have

appeared on Transworld sport a big part

of our show has been the places that

we've journeyed to and the traditional

sports that we've discovered there

places like Papua New Guinea Lao Cuba

Madagascar Mongolia Iraq Nepal Somalia

and Burkina Faso sports like samo

wrestling Kabaddi yak polo and Buffalo

racing here at Transworld sport we like

to think that we go to places where

others won't out of the 206 member

nations of the IOC we've been to a

hundred and ninety-three of them and

we're aiming to visit the remaining ones

in the near future

in the early 90s we headed to North

Korea we were one of the first

international sport shows to visit the

secretive state at that time the country

was under the rule of their great leader

Kim il-sung in Pyongyang we reported on

the DPRK sports system and were even

invited to film at the Arirang mass

Games where celebrations for Kim

il-sung's 80th birthday were in full

swing shortly after filming in North

Korea transworld sport was visited by

Western intelligence agencies came to

the what we've seen in the country

following the overthrow of the Taliban

in 2001 we returned to Afghanistan for

the first time since the late 80s we got

reacquainted with the brutal national

sport of booze Kashif one of the world's

oldest sports with few rules it's a

reflection of the violence and power

struggles that have scarred Afghanistan

for centuries

perhaps the most significant lesson that

our travels have taught us is how

important sport can be as a vehicle for

peace and understanding a few years

after the genocide in Rwanda which left

over 1 million people dead we reported

on the role that sport was playing in

helping to rebuild a shattered nation

sporting programs were being introduced

across the country to encourage social

change as a randa's president explained

to us what alone cannot bring about the

healing the society needs like ours but

that has to be done in a combination

with other efforts but what is important

to stress here is that sport has its own

place has its own role to play in bring

together certain hearing the minds of

people in focusing on it as something

that brings people together even in a

competition to bring them together gurus

have seen how sport can help to preserve

cultures around the world a favorite

annual event of ours is the world eskimo

Indian Olympics where Native Alaskan

games celebrate aspects of a rapidly

vanishing way of life

though the games may look a little

unusual the skills displayed date back

thousands of years and once necessary

for the survival of Native Alaskans it

hurts for a while because the weird and

wonderful things that people do around

the globe in the name of sport remains a

key feature of this program

transworld sport has spent almost 30

years celebrating them all and will

continue to do so in the years ahead