So the
shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year contest has been announced
this week and unsurprisingly, given the fact that Britain was the Olympic and Paralympic host
country this summer, the list is dominated by several of our Golden Guys and
Gals from those blistering, breathtaking weeks.
Take a bow Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Nicola Adams, Ben Ainslie, Katherine
Grainger, Ellie Simmonds, Sarah Storey, David Weir, Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley
Wiggins, Andy Murray and Rory McIlroy.
Trying to choose a top three from this list is enough to send a person
crazy; trying to choose one overall winner is surely impossible. I honestly cannot make up my mind which one I
would go for; every time I think I have my top 3 (out of the 8 I’m really
rooting for), I remember something someone else did and end up confused and
bewildered all over again. Let’s face
it, between the Tour de France, the Ryder Cup and the two summer Games, we’ve
been slightly spoilt for choice this year; coming up with a shortlist of twelve
(more than the usual) must have been an absolute nightmare.
Sadly,
however, Joe Public’s response to the list has been frankly ludicrous, for the
most. While I fully agree with people
who have mentioned several notable ‘omissions’ (where in the hell is my Hannah
Cockcroft nomination, people?!! And why
is there no nomination for Alistair and/or Johnny Brownlee, who were immense in
the triathlon? And were those of you
compiling the shortlist not watching Jonnie Peacock silencing an entire stadium
of 80,000 people with one finger? And
what the hell happened to the nomination for Laura Trott, which is the one most
people seem to keep picking up on? Plus
away from the Olympic/Paralympic hoopla – what happened to Dario
Franchitti?!! How many more times does
the guy have to be awesome before he gets a nod?), there have been some
comments made that really, really put my back up. Brace yourselves, people. This one might get a little ‘ranty’…
Firstly, all
those people moaning about Andy Murray being included “because he has no
personality”. Oh for goodness sake. Now I’m not exactly the world’s greatest Murray fan (not if he’s playing my beloved
Djokovic, anyway!) but to be a) so predictable and b) so pathetic is, frankly,
pitiful. So he may not be Mr Life and
Soul of the Party or whatever when he’s interviewed. That’s because he is a professional tennis
player!!! Not a professional party
animal or a professional comedian or anything – a tennis player. His job is to go out there and try to win his
matches, and then try to deal with some moronic reporter shoving a microphone
under his nose and asking stupidly-trite questions without either crying or
yelling or punching Sue Barker. You try
it sometime and see how you get on. He
is not there to make you laugh or entertain you in any way other than by
producing some bloody great tennis. He’s
being professional. Look it up in
a dictionary, would you? And while
you’re at it, look up the definition of “personality”. Astonishingly, it has more than one
meaning. Guess which one they’re going
for in this particular instance…?
Secondly,
the ‘vote for John Terry’ campaign. Ha
ha, very funny. Stop, my aching
sides. No really, stop, would you? Otherwise I might scream, and I can go
supersonic…I won’t go into a rant about this one because I think anyone with
half a brain cell can figure out why that waste of space shouldn’t even be
mentioned in the same breath as any of the other nominees – even Frankel and
he’s a bloody horse!!! Moving on…
…to the
thing which has really, really, really got my back up. Right now my back is so up I resemble
Quasimodo. I cannot fathom the sheer
level of utter plebbiness of the moronic pond life that pass for members of the
human race. It makes me weep for
humanity. And for my own soul…
There are
some people who have been questioning the inclusion of the three Paralympic
athletes in the shortlist. I will say
that again. People have been questioning
the inclusion of David Weir (four gold medals, in a wheelchair), Ellie Simmonds
(two golds, a silver and a bronze, not to mention smashing two world records
while she did so, born with achondroplasia) and Sarah Storey (four gold medals
in cycling, missing her left hand). The
reason for this? Because they compete in
the Paralympics and therefore in a smaller ‘talent pool’ than the likes of,
say, Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps.
Ok, I’ll
admit it – there are more able-bodied people in the world than there are
disabled/differently-abled. This is a
fact of life, a quirk of fate, whatever you want to call it. There always has to be an ‘other’ to
something and, in the case of humanity, it is disability. You don’t have to be Einstein to suss this
out (as I have just proved by mentioning it here in my blog). But you know what? FOUR GOLD MEDALS. How many have you got, Mr
Four-Fully-Functioning-Limbs? FOUR GOLD
MEDALS. You must have more than that,
right, Mrs-Two-Hands? TWO SMASHED WORLD
RECORDS. What have you got,
Mr-and-Mrs-Average?
That’s
right.
Nothing.
Because
sadly for you being a moron hasn’t yet been approved as a sport by the
IOC. (But don’t give up hope – as soon
as it is, you’re a sure fire winner for the title).
Ugh.
Allow me to
illustrate the pointlessness of the seething mass of humanity with a few choice
comments from the article on the BBC News website announcing the
shortlist. (Inability to spell and
brain-dead statements all the “intellectual” property of their appropriate
authors…)
“The
paralympians faced a minute talent pool to compete against and thus in
comparison to other professional sportspeople, shouldn't be up there. We're not
supposed to look at tem as disabled right? Well then, there are more deserving
people due to their feats against stronger competition. We've moved on from
tokenism surely, and will get us no further.” – Nick Ebrell
Well, Mr
Ebrell, I refer you to my above statement.
But by all means, since you form part of the larger ‘talent pool’, give
Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake a call and book yourself in for the 100m final at
the next world championships. After all,
it will make their achievement so much more incredible that they were able to go
out against the rest of the wo…oh, hang on a minute. That’s right, I almost forgot. Like all other professional sportsmen and
women they only compete against a tiny pool of like-minded and similarly-able
individuals. I guess that renders your
argument invalid. Next!
“Agree
with number one. As much as the media tried making out, the paralympics
registered very little...” – Our friend Mr Ebrell again.
Presumably
you were on Mars for the eleven days of the Paralympics then, Nick? And for the build up of at least a year
beforehand? In that case, I entirely
forgive you for making the above statement.
You weren’t? Oh. Fail.
Presumably the fact that the 2012 Paralympics was the first Games to
have ever sold out and the fact Channel Four cleared their schedules after the
first two days due to public demand escaped your notice. What were you doing, harvesting belly-button
fluff? Moving on…
“The
example of Zinardi winning endurance events at 46 years old, while it is an
inspiring achievement, shows there simply isn't the level of competition you
find in the olympics. To say there is - Is just patronising nonsense.” – Il
Pirata
Ooh, this
one is possibly one of my favourites!!
Firstly, Mr Pirata (not your real name, I suspect; at least our friend
Nick has the courage to identify himself), it’s ZAnardi, not ZInardi. Secondly, your level of stupid is
sublime. Alex Zanardi nearly died in an
absolutely horrific motor racing accident.
He nearly DIED. As a result he
lost both his legs and is now a Paralympic handbiking champion (2 golds and a
silver, actually). To put that into
context for you, this involves ‘pedalling’ with your hands. For miles.
Let’s see you try it and then tell me it doesn’t have the same level of
competition as any other cycling event.
The man is, quite simply, an outstanding athlete. Clearly you didn’t see the events
though. Your loss, frankly…
“Three Para-Olympians just smacks of
quotas and isn't representative of general opinion. They are inspirational as a
group but not memorable as individuals”. – Chris
Quotas? Quotas?!! What is this, the battle for cod fishing
rights in the North Atlantic?!! I refer
you again to four gold medals, four gold medals, two smashed world records and
two gold medals with a silver and bronze thrown in for good measure…
“At least 5 of this year's nominees
are tokenism either because they are women or representative of disability but
you would never get to hear of them as proper sporting interest. Finding
success at the Olympics and Paralympics while done little else does not make
them a sporting personality.” – hizento
Well, well, so we’ve gone from
quotas to tokenism. It must be
silly-season, right? Even my cat knew
who Jessica Ennis was before the Olympics; she was the ‘Face of the Games’, for
gods sake! Were you living under a
rock?!!
“I'm sorry if people get upset but
there are a hugely disproportionate number of disabled athletes in this list.
Look at the number of able bodied athletes compared to disabled and I'd be
surprised if the ratio is 0.1/% not the 25% in this list. Positive
discrimination it may be but discrimination it is none the less and that does a
huge diservice to all athletes who've competed this year.” -
RememberScarborough
Ri-ight…guess what? I’m upset.
If anything, I think there should be more Paralympians in there
(Hannah Cockcroft! Jonnie Peacock!! Dudes, where were you,
seriously?!!) In fact this year was so
extraordinary that I think they should have had a separate load of awards
(besides the medals, obviously) just for Team GB and Paralympics GB because they
were extraordinary!!
“Hideously PC list. Where is Alastair
Brownlee? Where is Alastair Cook? Where is Laura Trott? I haven't even heard of
Sarah Storey, and Grainger took 4 attempts to win gold? Wow she must be
amazing. Perhaps if Brownlee had a withered hand he'd have got in? Token
nominations to fit the PC bill. BBC hang your head in shame!” – Steve Bradley
I’ll give you Laura Trott and Al
Brownlee. But Cooke?!! Ah hahahaaaaaa!!! I’m sorry, what have the cricket team done
this year, exactly? Or him
personally? Do shut up.
“Eliie was swimming against people
with arms and legs missing. Now call me the cynic (and I'm no swimming expert)
but you can't tell me beating them at swimming is not that great an
achievement; small bodied or not. :-(
Ellie - ridiculous choice. Ennis the
same. She won 1 gold medal. So did many other's, but not all are implanted in
to 'Lord' Coe's clique.” – Bazza the Bubble
Someone should have listened to
LEXI, clearly…
There are other various delightful
comments in similar veins, but it basically boils down to the fact that the Paralympians
shouldn’t be there because there are less of them competing so it’s a smaller
playing field therefore their achievements are less and they only got listed
because of tokenism/the PC brigade.
*facepalms* What complete and
utter twaddle, says I. I know everyone’s
entitled top their opinion but actually some of this could be classed as quite
offensive – I couldn’t post some of the more moronic posts because the dear old
Beeb deleted them. Just as well, really…
Anyway, to end this rant on a much
more positive note, I think I finally decided who my choice is. For his sheer tenacity, determination and
astonishing sporting prowess, for his brilliant personality and ferocious
competitive spirit, for four gold medals in less than two weeks, and for making
me scream for 5000 meters and then burst into tears of joy after my tears of
disappointment that Oscar Pistorius was robbed on the line – for making my
evening at the Olympic Stadium so utterly astonishingly memorable and joyous –
I will be voting for the Weirwolf himself.
Ahhhh-oooooooohhhhh!!
