Category: “Sport”

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The BBC did a brilliant job with their Sports Personality show on Sunday. If I had one small complaint it was in the air-brushing of any politics or politicians from the narrative. ‘Keep politics out of sport’ has a certain compelling appeal, but sport is an intensely political area. Always has been (think Eastern Europe, [...]

I was really determined not to drone on about the Olympics any more, but having just been to City trader BGC’s charity day, I feel I have to. Because the Olympic spirit was alive and well and wafting around spreading its goodness whenever an Olympian or Paralympian ventured near. BGC has had a September 11 [...]

I’m writing this on the train to Manchester, where I will be downing a few plateloads of pasta, trying to get a decent sleep, then waking up to the prospect of a bike ride to Birmingham to help raise funds for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research Pedal for Petrov campaign. As I do so, I [...]

I woke up this morning to an avalanche of tweets in response to my asking on the way home from Stratford last night why the US, so dominant in Olympic sport, appear to be so relatively marginal in the Paralympics. It is never possible to predict what will get a big reaction on twitter, but [...]

Much has been made of the contrast between the values and heroics of our Olympians and Paralympians, and the often not so great values and not so great values of our multi-millionaire professional footballers. Well today provides an opportunity for football, football clubs and football stars to show that the caricature is misplaced. I know [...]

There are two big events going on this week, both of which will see people most Brits haven’t heard of till now being propelled to greater prominence. The first is the Paralympics and the day by day, hour by hour rollout of some of the most remarkable sporting and human endeavors of our time. The [...]

Here is the piece I wrote for The Times on Lance Armstrong yesterday. It was thanks to them that I got to know the Texan cyclist, and this is my reflection on him now, following his decision not to contest further the doping allegations made against him. ‘Losing and dying. It’s the same thing’ — [...]

It is technical uselessness, rather than modesty, that prevents me from putting on here the photo I tweeted yesterday from the summit of Mont Ventoux. Now I cannot claim to have got up this legendary Provençal mountain quickly. Indeed, my times over the past few years represent something of a study in ageing. But I [...]

Here is a piece CNN asked for on what I think will be the long term significance of the Olympics in London 2012. I always thought London 2012 would be a success but never imagined it would be quite the triumph it has turned out to be. From the brilliant opening ceremony to the festival [...]