The Team behind the Team: Sport's drive for data

How is data used in sport? Katie Smith investigates the growing use of and reliance on data in sport, as part of a new four-part podcast series on what goes into helping athletes and teams perform at an elite level, made in partnership with The Open University. There’s a visit to an England Golf training camp at their headquarters in Lincolnshire to hear from rising golf star Lottie Woad on how data has helped improve her game and from Steve Robinson, England Golf national women’s performance coach, on how data can help with coaching. Dr Ben Langdown from the Open University explains what is measured as golfers look for an edge and the potential pitfalls of data, while Dr Nichola Kentzer explains some of the ethical dilemmas around the use of data. What role does data have in cycling? Olympic gold medallist Geraint Thomas explains why he still sees the sport as an art form and he doesn’t rely on the data too much but rather the feelings in his legs. Ineos Head of Innovation and Performance Support Mehdi Kordi reveals how everything can be measured in cycling. Plus, Liverpool FC’s former Director of Research, Ian Graham shares how football clubs can gain an edge through using data but cautions that football is the hardest sport to analyse data in. He also explains how he sold former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on the merits of data as the club built the team that ended their 30 year wait for a Premier League title. The Team behind the Team is produced in partnership with the Open University. Team Ineos Grenadiers staff member David Rozman does not feature in this series and he was never interviewed or offered for interview during the process of gathering material for the series. Our production team was unaware of historical doping allegations relating to David Rozman and the 2012 season, which they have since been made aware of following the recording of this series.

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The Team behind the Team: Sport's drive for data is an episode from 5 live Sport Specials by BBC.

This episode is 48:28 long.

This episode was published on Sep 1, 2025.

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