'Cold hands, warm heart'

We start in the Arctic Circle, via the Welsh valleys, where Cath Pendleton has always loved swimming. Born from a childhood playing in the rivers of her home town of Merthyr, all through her life, her time in the water has been a sanctuary from the strain of daily life. But what makes Cath's story so remarkable is the type of open water swimming she loves the most is in the coldest waters you can find known as "ice swimming". But not content with simply finding cold rivers in Wales, Cath stepped it up a notch and journeyed to Antarctica, where she made history, almost by accident when she became the first person to swim an ice mile inside the Antarctic Circle! There are some things that seem just too difficult for humans to achieve, but there's probably nowhere quite like the Paralympics to leave you slack jawed in amazement at people not just doing, but excelling at things you thought impossible. To that end I urge you to seek out footage of snowboarder Noah Elliot and remember he is an above the knee amputee. From his home in Colorado we chatted about life on the slopes and so it seemed only right to start by talking about winning gold in Milan Cortina in March. There are few professions as seemingly cold as the world of corporate law. Rose Harvey's escape from the daily pressures of this high stakes career was to go running. That sliding doors moment in 2020 certainly raised the temperature taking her into the heat of Olympic competition. It's probably the most infamous story in Winter Olympic history and in this case one of the protagonists must have had ice running through her veins... In 1994, ice skater Nancy Kerrigan, was clubbed in the knee shortly after a training session. The attack put the Olympic hopes of the American golden girl in jeopardy. To everyone's shock the plot was traced back to one of the support staff of Kerrigan's rivals. Mary Scotvold was Kerrigan's coach. Photo: Gold medallist Noah Elliott of Team United States poses for a photo with his medal on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Para Snowboard Men's Banked Slalom SB-LL1 on day seven of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games (CREDIT: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

You can listen to 'Cold hands, warm heart' online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

'Cold hands, warm heart' is an episode from Sportshour by BBC.

This episode is 51:53 long.

This episode was published on May 15, 2026.

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