The Short Sport

Amanda Provan has just 3% vision and has been playing hockey since age 12, becoming the first woman to play on the Canadian National Blind Hockey team.

Now she's chasing a new dream. In spring 2025, she tried blind soccer for the first time at a training camp near Parry Sound, Ontario. By this past May, she'd earned a spot on the national women's team.

"I'm kind of game to try whichever sports come my way," Provan says. "I have a dream in taking part in the Paralympic Games."

New sport, same relentless drive toward the same goal.

Mohamed Lahna's Triathlon Across America ended the only way it could, brutally. After swimming around Manhattan and biking roughly 3,000 miles across the country, the Paralympic medalist still had a 300-mile run left, from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, on a prosthesis.

One stretch between Nevada and California followed power lines for 116 miles through off-road terrain and extreme heat. "The route looked endless," he told Runner's World, so he broke it down two miles at a time.

47 days later, he reached Venice Beach. 3,300 miles behind him.

ONE MORE EPISODE. Thank you to everyone who has tuned in and been along for the ride. Hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. Now let's finish this thing with a BANG.

Little Singles Season Finale next Monday on TLC, and the next day on HBO Max!

Chandra Bahadur Dangi stood just 54.6cm tall and lived to 75, remarkable for someone with primordial dwarfism, a condition that rarely allows people to survive past thirty.

For most of his life, Chandra lived in the remote Nepalese village of Rhimkholi, weaving traditional garments and living quietly with his five brothers, all of average height. It wasn't until a forest contractor stumbled upon him that the world learned who he was.

In 2012, he was officially recognized as the Shortest Man Living, and remains the Shortest Man Ever recorded by Guinness World Records.

A life lived far from the spotlight, but never forgotten.

Team GB wheelchair basketball star Robyn Love, who welcomed daughter Alba with teammate and partner Laurie Williams in 2023, is presenting the BBC Radio 4 Appeal this Sunday, August 16, in support of the National Childbirth Trust.

The appeal raises funds for NCT's free infant feeding support, including its network of over 40 Baby Cafes across the UK, drop-in spaces where any parent can get practical, judgment-free help.

Robyn says NCT helped her and Laurie feel supported through parenthood as a family: "There is a place for them and their family."

A Commonwealth medallist off the court doing something just as meaningful.

Umesh Vikram Kumar just clinched another major title, taking gold at the Fazza Championships and continuing a career built on consistent, high-level results on the international stage.

Another tournament, another gold medal, another reminder of why he's one to watch.

In 2012, Ladysmith equestrian Laura Hall suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling from a horse, an injury that weakened the right side of her body and threatened to end her competitive riding altogether.

Instead of walking away, she got back in the saddle with her horse Istrano by her side. "He is a heart horse. He means everything to me. He's taken me so far," Hall says.

What started as Olympic dressage dreams became something new. "So my Olympic dreams became Paralympic dreams," she says, and now she's headed to championship competition with Istrano.

"I want to prove that when I step onto the range, I am not just a great para archer, I am one of the best archers in the world."

That's the mindset that's carried Matt Stutzman, the armless archer, to a Paralympic gold and a Paralympic record score of 149/150 in Paris. It's the same mindset now driving his comeback for LA 2028.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz was a mathematics and electrical engineering prodigy who counted Einstein, Edison, and Tesla among his peers. Forced to flee Germany after his ties to a socialist newspaper drew hostile attention, he nearly wasn't allowed into the United States at Ellis Island because of his dwarfism, until an American friend convinced customs officers of his genius.

His Law of Hysteresis revolutionized the understanding of electrical engineering, solving problems that had stumped Tesla, Westinghouse, and Edison himself. Edison was so impressed he bought out all of Steinmetz's patents and the company he worked for, bringing him into General Electric.

Legend has it Henry Ford once balked at a $10,000 bill for a single chalk mark, until he realized what that mark actually represented.

Genius doesn't always look the way people expect.