Best features of 2017: the sporting life

Runners, surfers, divers, cricketers, boxers, America's Cup insights and a poleaxe champ.

Leo Houlding: the magic of extreme climbing

British climber Leo Houlding has made a career out of pulling off some of the toughest climbs on earth.

Have women surfers waved goodbye to sexism?

Women are still fighting to negotiate space alongside their male peers in action sports such as surfing, snowboarding, BMX and mountain biking. 

Stephen Donald: 'I’ve had a charmed career'

Stephen Donald became a rugby legend when he kicked the All Blacks to victory at the 2011 Rugby World Cup at Eden Park. But it was to be Donald’s first and last World Cup match. He reflects on the ups and downs of his rugby career in the biography Beaver.

Extreme exercise - do we crave bodily punishment?

Academics at the University of Cardiff have an interesting theory that in an age where so many of us sit around and just use our bodies to put food in and take us from A to B, we crave bodily punishment. Coast to Coast event director Richard Ussher is one of those and explains why it might be.

One-armed Kiwi tennis player holds nothing back

New Zealand tennis player Alex Hunt was born without his left arm, but he says he doesn't feel different to anyone else on the court. The 23-year old Nelsonian's prosthetic arm does a pretty good job of throwing the ball up in the same spot for a serve, he says.

The Forty-Niners: Hadlee brings captain's tour diary to life

Cricket legend Sir Richard Hadlee says his “greatest life achievement” was completed only this year. Hadlee has spent the last four years bringing to life a tour diary kept by his late father, Walter Hadlee – The Skipper's Diary is the result.

The dark side of the America's Cup

The America's Cup has a colourful past rife with dirty deals, spying, betrayal and legal battles throughout its 166-year history.

Phil Jarratt: 'Every wave I catch feels like a whole new vibrant experience'

Phil Jarratt has a life many of us only dream of – beautiful beaches, cool parties and plenty of time off to catch waves. The writer and filmmaker looks back at 50 years on a surfboard in his new autobiography A Life of Brine.

Can action sports help make a better world?

Skateboarding, surfing and other action sports are starting to play a role in social development, community building and even peacemaking around the world.

Portia Woodman: rugby star

Portia Woodman was part of the World Cup-winning Black Ferns and player of the year at the World Rugby Awards. She talks to Kathryn Ryan about her busy year on the field, and where she sees the game heading in the future.

Kick-off in Vietnam: 'It was five miles away and we were watching'

Fifty years on, All Whites veterans Ray Mears and Paul Rennell remember the Vietnam 'Tour of Duty' that saw their team dropped right into a controversial war for a football tournament.

William Trubridge: the life aquatic

UK-born New Zealander William Trubridge was the first human to descend to 100m during Project Hector - an event aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of New Zealand's critically endangered Hector's and Maui's dolphins. In July 2016 he furthered this record to 102 metres. This year he released the memoir Oxygen.

The life of Muhammad Ali

In 1960 Cassius Clay exploded onto the boxing scene as the charismatic and controversial fighter known as The Louisville Lip. The Kentucky-native soon became one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. Jonathan Eig has compiled hundreds of interviews and spent four years researching the book Ali: A Life.

What if sport wasn’t divided by gender?

A Lincoln University researcher says men and women athletes should be allowed to compete against each other.

Team NZ designer: How we won the Cup

From the finely tuned dagger boards to the complex foiling systems Team New Zealand's design boss Dan Bernasconi reveals how they won the America's Cup and how the future is monohull.

Barefoot Ted on the joy of natural running

A skipping rope can help people re-learn the 'primal skill' of running without shoes, says Ted McDonald, aka Barefoot Ted.

NZ's poleaxe-wielding warrior

Dayna Berghan-Whyman represented New Zealand at the International Medieval Combat Federation World Championships in Denmark this year. She talks about what it takes to safely wield a steel axe in 35 kilos of armour and how she pulled herself out of 'the howly-bags' after her first loss in Denmark.

Kathrine Switzer does it again - 50 years on

Wearing the famous number 261 vest, long-distance runner and activist Kathrine Switzer has done it again. Half a century later - and at 70 years old - Switzer has marked the anniversary of her historic first Boston Marathon, crossing the finishing line in 4:44:31.

New Zealand’s oldest active surf lifeguard

At 88-years-old, Bill Goodwin is New Zealand’s oldest active surf lifeguard. As the surf club season nears its end, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. He’s still patrolling between the flags at Whitiroa on the Coromandel Peninsula.