A German study shows that exercising only on weekends is just as good as exercising daily. All the "Weekend Warriors" here can get rid of the bad conscience thanks to cardiologists of the centre for cardiovascular research in Hamburg. Get all the details on today's "What's right with the world".
What's Right: Homeless football players competing at the World Cup
The football Homeless World Cup is currently taking place in South Korea’s capital Seoul. The event runs until 28 September and features 56 teams from 44 nations, bringing together 450 players from across the globe who have faced homelessness or other forms of social exclusion.
Who are Luxembourg's Olympic athletes?
13 athletes are going to represent Luxembourg at the Olympics starting next week. Our sports reporter Marco Pezzetti is all excited about it. Marco came on the breakfast show to present the Luxembourg athletes and to tell us who to follow specifically this summer. Listen to the entire interview here.
What's Right: Towards equal pay in professional football
The Danish national men's football team has refused a pay rise that was offered to them for playing for the national team. With this action, the players oppose the unequal payment for women and men in sports. Get all the details on today’s “What’s Right with the world”.
What's right: Feel the energy of sports
Since April, football fans with hearing loss in Newcastle get to experience the atmosphere at St James' Park in a more intense way. The Premier League club Newcastle United offers special shirts for fans who are deaf or have hearing loss. Get all the details on today's "What's right with the world".
What's right: Sports is healthy, watching sports as well
Regular exercising reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by 23%, a new study finds. Good news for all those who prefer watching TV: Another recent study shows that even watching sports has positive effects. Get all the details on today's "What's right with the world".
Sportslight: Your weekly sports news with Marco
Every Friday morning, Marco updates you on what's new in the universe of sports. He presents you the most important local and global sports events of the past and the upcoming week.
What's Right: Ghana's girls from the coast are changing culture through surfing
Obibini is Ghana's only female surf club. It gives young women and girls a place to play, learn and socialise. Teaching girls to swim and surf even seems to have lowered the local teenage pregnancy rate.
LM on tour: Differdange's football history in the Stade de Thillenberg
Local sports history, nostalgia and success - the Stade de Thillenberg is an iconic place. On Local Matters today, we dive into the history of this stadium.
Gender equality in sports: German tennis star Andrea Petkovic
Tennis is one of the few sports where women are nearly as famous and nearly as well paid as men. On Local Matters today, two women who have to do with tennis get the mic. Danielle Maas is one of the organisers of the Luxembourg Ladies Masters tournament that took place last weekend. And Andrea Petkovic has played tennis on international stages for years. With both, we talk about gender equality in sports.
Photo: Wikicommons
Gender equality in sports: Progresses on local level
Gender equality is still particularly visible in sports. On Local Matters today, we talk to a local women's volleyball team about how they perceive the inequality. And Maurice Bauer, alderman for gender equality at the city of Luxembourg, explains what the commune does to increase equality.
Voices Matter: Mateo and his journey to the Pokémon world championships
Mateo is 7 years old and he is Luxembourg's most successful Pokémon player. As one of Europe's top 15 players, he is invited to the Pokémon world championship in Japan in August. In our interview, he and his dad Pedro talk about their common passion.
Interview with Pablo Casero from Polo Club Luxembourg
The tournament will offer a number of events to get everyone involved. Those include three games per day, lunch on the field, pink and white gala dinner, and an Argentinian Asado Aperinetwork music night on the field.
50th anniversary of the Rugby Club Luxembourg
Paolo Tarakdjian and Giulia Lannucci joined Simon on the Breakfast Show to discuss the 50th anniversary of the Rugby Club Luxembourg.
Voices Matter: Julia Zhang's journey to Mount Everest
One time, Julia Zhang nearly lost her life while mountain climbing. Another time, climbing saved her life. On Voices Matter, Julia tells us about her upcoming excursion to Mount Everest. We talk about how mountain climbing has become an important part of her life and why she is so passionate about it.
(In)equality in sports: National football player Amy Thompson in our interview
Women’s sports events are less attractive because the level is lower. This is an often-used argument to justify female athletes earning less and getting less attention. The argument however, lacks context. Men don’t play better because they are men. They compete on a higher level better because they receive loads of support.
In today’s interview on Local Matters, we talk to Luxembourg national team football player Amy Thompson about the inequalities between men and women that continue to exist in Luxembourg’s professional football.
(In)equality in sports: Voices of the Escher Volleyball Club
Inequalities in scheduling, in funding and promotion - the sports sector still needs a lot of progress to achieve gender equality. For today's Local Matters, we had a visit to the female team of the Escher Volleyball Club EVBC to talk about how they perceive (in)equality between women and men in the local and national volleyball clubs.
Local Matters: Ice-skating Youth
Local Matters this week speaks to young athletic hopefuls.
Local Matters: Olympics and Human Rights
This week on Local Matters, we focus on the Olympic Games in Beijing. Our guest for today was Olivier Pirot, General Director of Amnesty International Luxembourg who is more than concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
In January, the organisers of the Olympic Wintergames in Beijing warned athletes not to violate the “Olympic spirit” or Chinese rules, after human rights advocates expressed concerns about the safety of the athletes. “Any behaviour or speeches that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are subject to certain punishment,” said Yang Shu, deputy director general of Beijing 2022’s International Relations Department, during a press conference in January.
While athlete teams from all over the world compete in the Games, other countries decided to boycott the Olympics sending a clear message: We don’t support nor tolerate the human rights violations in China. Luxembourg is not part of this movement and neither the human rights NGO Amnesty International Luxembourg voiced a call for boycott. General Director Olivier Pirot explains: “A boycott is not enough. If you are there as a partner, it is an opportunity. You should use this opportunity to remind China of its obligations. China is member of the United Nations. So, they have to respect the human rights declaration.”
Olivier Pirot is concerned about the lack of the freedom of expression in the country, and not least about the high number of executions due to the death penalty. “Every year, we launch a report on death penalty. China is not even mentioned in the report with figures because we’re talking about thousands of executions in China. We don’t even know how many.” But Pirot is hopeful: “If you look decades back, there were a lot of countries where death penalty was still ongoing and with this slow pressure, things are changing. Every year, we see improvements. It is long processes.”
Local Matters: Luxembourg at the Olympics
Two Luxembourgish skiers are at the Olympic Games in Beijing right now. We got Matthieu Osch and Gwyneth ten Raa on the phone. In our interview, they told us about the atmosphere in the Olympic village, about heavy snowfalls and their athletic ambitions.
All that Gwyneth ten Raa aimed for at the Olympics, was to ride over the finishing line, wave at her family in the cameras, happy and relieved. But unfortunately, she didn’t make it that far in her first and only Olympic race ever. The 16-year-old skier dropped out of the competition last week. Nevertheless, she enjoys the experience. “It’s amazing to be here. I’ve never been out of Europe. Being at the Olympics in China is very impressive”, she says. These days, she watches sports and inspiring athletes. She supports her team member Matthieu Osch in his training.
For him, the race if not over yet. Last weekend, he participated in the giant slalom that converted into a snow chaos. “The last two weeks that we had been here, we had always nice weather, blue sky, it was sunny; but on Sunday, we had a different situation. We had a lot of snowfall, heavy wind and the sight was not good, so, it was kind of tricky. But I think in the end, it was a fair race.”” Matthieu Osch reached the finishing line 17 seconds after the winner of the race, the Swiss skier Marco Odermatt, at 28th position. “I am pretty satisfied, I made some mistakes I could have avoided. But in the end, I can take this with me for the next race.” Now he is preparing his next and last race for this year, the slalom that takes place tomorrow. Hopefully with better weather conditions.
Photo: IOC/Greg Martin