The England striker is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year but footballers do not have a great record in the eventEver since England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, Harry Kane has been a smouldering favourite for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. The Spurs striker has already won the golden boot. No wonder many believe he is a shoo-in to lift the famous silver-plated trophy of a four-turret lens camera engraved with many legends of British sport.Yet history reminds us that footballers and Spoty do not always mix. For while 18 track and field stars have walked away with the award in its 64-year history – with Formula One drivers claiming it seven times...
Not surprisingly reinstating Russia to international competition has not gone down particularly well, and the Wada president’s insistence he had no alternative is a laughable responseI am affronted on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency president Craig Reedie to learn that he was pointedly not invited to this week’s White House event entitled “Advancing International Commitment to Clean Sports: Reforming the World Anti-Doping Agency”. In many ways the White House should be a place of camaraderie for Sir Craig. He certainly wouldn’t have been the only guy in the place who thinks he has been treated very unfairly over matters relating to Russian urine.“I am used to athletes complaining,” sniffed Reedie of the outrage over last month’s Wada decision to...
Former quarterback’s stand is a reminder the injustice highlighted by raised fists 50 years ago has not gone awayLast week Colin Kaepernick became one of eight new recipients of the W E B Du Bois Medal, presented by Harvard University to those it considers to have made significant contributions to African‑American history and culture. The award, of which recipients have included Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Muhammad Ali and Ava DuVernay, is named after the writer and civil rights pioneer who explored the notion of “double consciousness”. Du Bois, the great‑great‑grandson of a slave, believed that being black and being American could be conceived “as leading neither to assimilation nor separatism but to proud, enduring hyphenation”.Receiving the award, the former San...
Parkrun began 14 years ago and has now mushroomed into a heartwarming worldwide success story that is about to register its 5,000,000th runnerOn Wednesday somebody somewhere will become the 5,000,000th person to register for Parkrun. Think about that. Let it marinate. It is an extraordinary number for an extraordinary success story. Parkrun began 14 years ago this week, with a simple idea: a free five-kilometre time-trial around Bushy Park, south west London. It was low-key, lo-fi, and unofficial. Thirteen people turned up. The results were typed up in a nearby Caffè Nero. No one bothered to ask the park for permission.Now close to 250,000 people do it on a good weekend – across 20 countries, including Russia, Malaysia and Swaziland....
Exactly 30 years on from the Seoul Olympics 100m, the ineffectiveness of the anti-doping system remains a concernThirty years ago today, Ben Johnson crouched on his starting blocks before the 100m Olympic final in Seoul, waiting. A gun went off. And he went supernova. Even now there is a visceral thrill watching him burn off his rivals from between 30 to 70 metres – those tiny legs whirring at an almost impossible velocity, as if the race replay is being played at double speed, while they strain in vain to catch him – as he lifts one finger in the air in triumph.After his lap of honour, Johnson was asked which he treasured more: his gold medal or a world...