Vintage
2011 has been an extraordinary year in the world of sport, and if anything, 2012 looks all set to top it in terms of action, excitement, and the human drama that can lift our spirits and crush our souls in the blink of an eye.
When Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I could only reply, “more of the same please. Make next year as action-packed and as fun-filled as 2011, and you can put me down for feeding the reindeer next December.”
Santa, I am sure, will not disappoint.
Firstly, we can look ahead to what promises to be an enthralling climax to the Barclays Premier League season.
With the two Manchester clubs slugging it out at the top of the table, like prize-fighters who’ve bet heavily on themselves, both will be glancing over their shoulders from time to time at Tottenham Hotspur, the perennial underachievers, who this season might, just might, be ready to shed the tag.
Spurs have delighted neutrals with their swashbuckling style and their occasionally blustering derring-do, and proved that results can be achieved playing attractive, flowing football – a statement to the pragmatists who threaten to turn the beautiful game into a drudge. Don’t look away; you know who you are.
Furthermore, the ‘bun fight’ that is the race for a UEFA Champions League spots has never been more hotly contested, with powerhouses Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all realising that their previously accepted divine right for inclusion is by no means assured.
I’m anticipating a fascinating year in the world of tennis as well, as Roger Federer continues to confound the critics who wrote him off, almost as a matter of course, throughout 2011.
At the age of 30, R Fed is long past his sell-by date as far as the tennis world is concerned, and yet he continues to draw on his reserves of experience and mental strength to defeat players several years his junior.
That he won the Tour Finals at the end of last season is testament to his resilience and seemingly indefatigable love for a game that has made him one of the most high profile sportsmen on earth, and the fact that he has done it with such grace, humility, sportsmanship and style, is enough to make ardent cynics vomit into their breakfast cereal.
Roger is a nice man; a genuinely good bloke; with an acceptably unattractive wife, and we love him for all of it. The fact that he has a backhand that can only have been made in heaven, endears us further to the living legend.
Would I love him to successfully defend his Australian Open title in January and secure his 17th Grand Slam win? Yes, probably; as long as he doesn’t cry afterwards.
I’m also looking forward to the start of the new Formula One season, if for no other reason than it’s going to be ‘precedental’. I don’t even know if that word exists, but if it doesn’t, it should.
For the first time ever, on the starting grid for the season-opening race in Australia in March, there will be 6 World Champions – past and present.
Kimi Raikkonen returns to F1 after messing about in rally cars for a couple of years – what was he thinking?
His rivalry with Michael Schumacher will resume, and I think it’s fair to say that there won’t be too many more circuit tours for the 43 year old German who, incidentally, has won as many world titles as the other 5 drivers put together.
Then there’s Jenson Button, World Champion in 2009, Lewis Hamilton (2008), and Fernando Alonso (2005 and 2006), and lest we forget (unlikely) the reigning champ Sebastian Vettel, the youngest ever double champion, and the youngest ever consecutive champion.
The word ‘competitive’ simply doesn’t do justice to what promises to be an intriguing F1 season.
The golf world meanwhile, is delighted to be able to welcome back a seemingly rejuvenated Tiger Woods, although every other player on the tour may not quite share those sentiments.
Woods ended 2011 with a win at the Chevron World Challenge (his first tournament victory in two years) playing golf of the calibre that made him the very best in the world for a staggering 623 weeks, all told.
Tiger is competitive again, and significantly, healthy. I for one, can’t wait until April, when he has a tilt at The Masters, looking for his 5th win at Augusta, and his first since 2005.
But perhaps the biggest and most compelling sporting event of 2012 will be taking place in London, from the 27th of July until the 12th of August.
It doesn’t seem like 4 years since the last Olympic Games in Beijing, but my diary assures me that it is. When one epic edition ends, it’s miserable to contemplate the long wait for the next one, and yet it’s crept up precipitously, and almost unnoticed. Or maybe I skipped an intervening year…
Every Olympic Games boasts that it’s going to be the biggest and the best in history, and in the current global economic climate such bravura may appear to be a little misplaced, or even misguided.
One can expect London though, to put the games on with a certain sense of style, and a very high level of organisational prowess, and it’s gratifying to note that even the top people at the IOC are delighted by the arrangements made so far.
It’s the biggest sporting gig on the planet, and it’s never without its share of drama, controversy, excitement and nail-biting tension. Forget the “altius” and “fortius”. I just want July to come round “citius”.
Catch Andrew Leci on SportsCenter on ESPN every weekday at 7.30pm, for highlights and news from the world of sports
