Safety's been called into question after a collision at yesterday's SailGP event in Auckland landed two athletes in hospital.

The opening day of racing was called off early - when New Zealand’s Black Foils lost control and went spinning into France.

Kiwi Louis Sinclair suffered compound fractures in both legs and a French athlete was also injured.

Sailing professor Mark Orams, says the crash looked deadly - and almost felt inevitable on the back of the previous two races.

"There were so many close misses, there were so many teams that were really struggling to control the boat under really tough conditions on a very compressed course."

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What an incredible weekend of sport, with the T20 Cricket World Cup, Super Rugby Pacific, and SailGP sweeping into Auckland – more on that in a minute - some of the world’s best trail runners hit Rotorua for the Tarawera Premier Ultra-trail Marathon and the Winter Olympics continues to provide stunning performances, triumphs and disappointments, scandals and feel good moments.

I’ve been interested in the chat around the Winter Olympics over the last week.

The Winter Olympic Games is often criticised for being filled with elite, niche sports that struggle to capture broad public appeal. Unlike the Summer edition, which features globally accessible competitions like athletics, swimming and football, the Winter Games is based on disciplines which require specific climates, facilities, and funding.

Sports such as biathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting), snowboard cross (kind of BMX racing for snowboarders), and curling are unfamiliar to many viewers outside Europe and North America. They demand snow tracks, ice rinks, and mountain ranges - resources unavailable in much of the world. As a result, participation is concentrated among a relatively small group of nations, reinforcing the perception that these are rarefied pursuits rather than widely played global sports.

But for me, this exclusivity underscores why these athletes deserve celebration. Winter Olympians dedicate their lives to mastering extraordinarily demanding disciplines under harsh conditions. They train for years in sub-zero temperatures and in many cases risk injury at high speeds as they refine their skills in sports where success is often decided by fractions of a second or points.

The limited global infrastructure for many of these sports makes reaching elite level even more impressive; pathways are narrower, funding scarcer, and margins for error smaller.

That they are largely broadcast on pay tv in New Zealand also fuels the idea these sports aren’t hugely common. But uncommon or not, if you’ve been watching over the last week, surely you’ll agree the camera work has been spectacular and the events have been incredible to watch.

My whole family have become obsessed with ice dancing and figure skating - and there have been some serious controversies and sides taken during the week, even though none of us could get ourselves around an ice rink.

And really, isn’t all sport at the top-end of competition elite - or as we like to call it ‘high performance sport’? On the global stage, rugby is niche. So is netball. The America’s Cup is an elite sport, and the coast to coast this weekend attracts a small number of super athletes who will traverse the South Island. Doesn't make their accomplishments any less impressive.

The Olympics exists not merely to platform the most popular sports, but to honour excellence at the highest level. That some of those sports are not broadly accessible does not diminish the skill required to compete. In the last week we’ve seen human resilience, sportsmanship, courage, and technical mastery - all done in what can be very challenging environments.

So niche or not, our Kiwi athletes and their fellow competitors represent the pinnacle of their disciplines - and that alone warrants recognition and celebration.

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Pod Save America is one of the world's most successful news and politics podcasts and the team's set to take their show to our shores.

The Hopefully Just Visiting tour will have live shows across Australia and New Zealand, with the one-off Auckland show taking place at Bruce Mason Theatre this week.

Founder and podcast co-host Tommy Vietor says it's hard to encourage people to pay attention to politics, and he's hoping the podcast can help with that.

"We're noticing that after the 2016 election - there are people who have never thought about politics before, never knocked on a door, never made a phone call... the challenge is, around the presidential elections, the electorate just looks totally different."

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In 2023, comedian Tom Sainsbury released his award-winning murder mystery podcast Small Town Scandal.

The podcast is being re-launched as a television show coming to Neon and Sky, with the series following disgraced journalist Toby Buchanan as he investigates the murder of his millionaire uncle.

The show stars Sainsbury himself, as well as Kiwi actress Morgana O'Reilly.

"It's changed from the podcast, there are some characters that are exactly the same and some storylines that are the same - but we've had to expand it, change it, change the ending, all that kind of stuff."

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The Sisterhood Rules by Kathy Lette, who must be one of the funniest women in the world. It’s about twin sisters who have been estranged for five years, ever since Verity stole Isabel’s husband - but they come together to take their mother in hand when they discover that she’s taken up with a much younger man and is having a fabulous time, running through the money which might otherwise be their inheritance. It’s full of jokes, puns and Kathy’s trademark wit but she’s making a serious point - that the bonds between women are what keep us all sane, and that we need to have one another’s backs.

Seed by Elizabeth Easther, who is a New Zealand journalist, book reviewer, playwright and author. This is also about the bonds between women - in this case between four women, each of whom is struggling with conception or pregnancy and the various modern ways by which those things might happen - fertility treatments, dating apps, autonomy over decisions affecting their own bodies and the impacts of these things with the people in their lives. It will speak very strongly to readers of a certain age - specifically, women who find themselves in the midst of those years, and it feels very true, and very real.

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Thai Airways recently confirmed the return of its non-stop flight route from Auckland to Bangkok - set to launch in the second half of 2026.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw a halt to flights, which included the direct link between the two cities, shutting down in March 2020.

BloggerAtLarge.com writer Megan Singleton explained further - and revealed her itinerary for a perfect four days in Thailand.

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Well, congratulations to all the parents out there of school-age children - most returned to school last week, only then to be home again for the long weekend.

Anyway, as of tomorrow, there’s a sense the year begins proper now and we can all get on with 2026.

I am no longer a parent of school children, and to be honest I find that a relief. Getting your child educated isn’t always straight forward.

But if I was, I would be pleased with Education Minister Erica Stanford’s announcement this week about changes to reporting a child’s progress in primary and intermediate schools.

As a parent who had to suffer through the pointless student led conference era whereby your child would present you with a curated collection of their recent work - this is welcome news.

Not only did the student led system not provide a parent with any practical information as to how their child was progressing, or what they could do to help, but it replaced valuable one-on-one time a parent could’ve had with a teacher getting those details with something a parent could pop in and do at the beginning or end of the day on their own anyway.

The one thing that was drilled into me as a parent of a new entrant was that we’re all in this together. Your child’s learning success doesn’t just come down to a competent teacher, preferably in a single classroom with adequate teacher aid support - it requires parents to participate in and take responsibility for their child’s education.

But if you don’t have a clear understanding of where your child is at, whether they’re thriving or quietly struggling, and probably more importantly, knowing how you can help them along, then we’re not really all in it together. We’re all just floundering.

These early years are critical for establishing foundational literacy and numeracy skills - if you struggle during these years you’re more likely to continue to struggle.

The use of 5 clear progress markers to describe your child’s learning progress has taken a bit of flak for being, shall we say, a little too sophisticated, but it comes with an explanation of why a progress marker was chosen, so I’m sure parents will get their heads around it.

More importantly, it comes with information for how parents can support the next learning steps, and will be followed up with twice-yearly progress check-ins for students in Years 3-8 which will allow parents to see progress over the year.

None of this is intended to add pressure or judgement on children, or undermine the student voice. But if it provides the better clarity and more detailed reporting on academic achievement that Stanford promises it does, then it’s another step in the right direction to provide students with the support they need to flourish.

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On the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast for Sunday 8 February 2026. Rural New Zealand, an automatic mower and murder ... Tom Sainsbury and Morgana O'Reilly share all the behind the scenes details of bring Tom's award winning podcast to life on the tele.

Pod Save America is one of the worlds most listened to new and political podcasts. The team head to New Zealand this week. Pod co-host and former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor joins Francesca to discuss a divisive time in US politics.

Tenby Powell has returned from six months of humanitarian work in Ukraine, he talks about what it's like on the ground and just how much things have changed in the four years of this war.

Francesca applauds changes to assessments and reporting changes in schools as a win for parents trying to help their children.

And if you need a Super Bowl snack, Mike van de Elzen has his chicken wings with hot sauce recipe for you.

Get the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin Full Show Podcast every Sunday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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