Two impressive contributions on SPOTY, one from Tyson Fury, an inspiration to anyone with mental health issues; and one from the young lad who lost both legs in a car smash, and has returned to racing. What if I've been blue Now I'm walking through Fields of flowers As the song goes.
Widespread ridicule this morning for the SPOTY winner - a Welsh bike rider. Who’d have guessed it- another niche, minority sport ...and one riddled with drugs & corruption.
Not quite as bad as the year HRH Zara Phillips and her little pony won it that was the year I tuned out of SPOTY. I would have avoided it since 1971 when her mum Princess Anne won it, but I was only four at the time and the 1970's was a different age, when brown-nosing Royalty wasn't questioned much. It all went downhill after the Silver Jubilee really. By the way, did they give Thomas his award last night in a brown paper bag?
According to Radio 4 ...Women’s Netball won the SPOTY Best moment of the year. So not England at the World Cup, not the cricketers thrashing India...not even Ronnie or Tommy Fleetwood or the Ryder Cup team. Women’s. Fvcking. Netball.
A worthy winner, as Sir Bradley Wiggins will testify The Tour de FRance is possibly the most gruelling sport in existence. There were no complaints when Sir Bradley (an Englishman) won Sports POTY in 2012, why should a Welshman be derided in 2018 for the same achievement?
A lot more unsavoury revelations have come out about the sport since 2012, and Bradley Wiggins turned out to be as straight as a banana.
Plenty of unsavoury revelations before 2012 as well. The sport has always had a drug problem. Tommy Simpson, whose last words were "Put me back on me bike" is still a legend despite his use of performance-enhancing drugs. They may well all have been at it at one time, and efforts to clean the sport up are comparatively recent. Still a fantastic achievement to win the race though, full deserving the award. I'm glad Chris Froome never won it though; if he doesn't pay his taxes here he's not British, like Lewis Hamilton. Kyle Edmond isn't British any more either.
The women's netball team was, according to Clare Balding, voted winners by theBritish public. Where? I didn't see or hear anything about a vote for the team event. I'm not even sure of the rules- do you have to be British or not? Billie-Jean isn't. The Ryder Cup team isn't all British, but the Irish rugby team was nominated for the team event, and they're only half British.
It’s very, very hard to believe. The programme itself has been panned on social media. It’s a genuine shame. When the BBC used to cover mainstream sport, and SPOTY was presented by the likes of David Coleman, Harry Carpenter and Des Lynam, it was a good show.
I was remembering when Mohammed Ali won Sports Personality of the Century with 83% of the vote. So I watched the entire fight on you-tube Vs Sonny Liston. Liston was supposed to be invincible and created an aura of fear similar to Mike Tyson at his peak. Yet Ali made a fool of him, and that was the beginning of the Ali era. KNowing what I know now about Liston's childhood, when his mother left, and he was raised by a cruel violent father it puts a different light on Liston's humiliation. But Ali dwarfed sport for years, even during his self-imposed exile from the sport. We will never ever see his like again.
If you're talking sports personalities then the golfers I'd name would be Seve, Arnold Palmer, and if you want to go further back Walter Hagen. When modern pro golfers collect their paycheque these are the ones they should be grateful towards.
The greatest golfer of his time, and also a truly great sportsman, but the other 3 were more influential in advancing the commercial possibilities of pro golf. It may seem sacrilege to some, but Nicklaus slowed the game down with his meticulous approach. When I saw Palmer win the Open at Troon they played 2 rounds on the final day, Nicklaus incuded. I also had the privilege of seeing "Swinging" Sam Snead play that day.
I watched EastEnders a few times over the festive period - not bad. @baraettmattesvensson - this one is an absolute - thoughts ?
