The legendary goalkeeper forced to pawn her gold medals

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Goalkeeper Briana Scurry knew at eight years old it was her destiny to win Olympic gold – and in 1996, she did it. That was just the beginning: she won the World Cup and another Olympics with the US Women's National Soccer Team. Briana made history on and off the pitch as one of the few African American women on the national side, and the only openly gay player on the team. But in 2010, a knee to the head changed her life. Incapacitated by pain and unable to work, Briana spiralled into depression and debt and ended up having to pawn the gold medals she’d spent her whole life working to earn. Things got so bad that she contemplated suicide. But then an ex-girlfriend introduced her to a woman who would change her life.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Fiona Woods

If you need support relating to any of the issues we've covered in this interview, you can find more information on the BBC Action line website or at Befrienders.org

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:06.9	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.1	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:13.7	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history.
0:20.7	We're still looking for Lucan.
0:22.1	It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:25.9	I'm Alex von Tundselman.
0:27.3	This is The Lucan Obsession.
0:29.2	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.7	A bomb whose creation would tip the scales of global power.
0:36.9	A nuclear physicist who sought to redress the balance.
0:42.2	The Bomb, a podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:46.1	Season 2, available now.
0:52.7	I took the 96 Olympic medal first,
1:00.9	and it was sitting in the passenger seat,
1:03.1	and I kept looking over there and knowing at what I was going to do.
1:08.8	And I just cried.
1:10.4	I cried for my mom.
1:12.0	I cried for all the people who helped me get that medal.
1:15.2	I cried for what it meant to me personally.
1:18.1	The little eight-year-old girl was just sitting in her car crying.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.