From the publishers of THE HINDU VOL.31 :: NO.52 :: Dec. 27, 2008 • Contents
	COVER STORY Phelps is the greatest No single sportsperson has left a more indelible mark on 2008 than that peculiar specie of the American human-fish called Michael Phelps. While most nations fretted and fumed to conjure up a solitary medal, Phelps came to the Beijing Olympics with huge expectations of surpassing the mother of all records — Mark Spitz’s seven gold haul at Munich — and exited the land of the Dragon with eight shiny discs of the noble metal swinging from his neck, writes Kunal Diwan. Ten years from now when someone flips through this dusty volume with an intent of knowing what transpired in the world of sport in 2008, would he, like the conscientious reader, also make an effort to understand the contextual relevance of the wins and the losses? Would he, for example, know, that in these past three hundred and sixty-six turns of the sphere, a young man had come within a brush of joining the angels in heaven, and had fallen on the very last step that led to the Golden Gates? Would the knowledgeable, google-savvy — and since we’re talking of 10 years hence — silicon-interfaced reader realise that, in 2008, another, younger man had committed an act of greatness that may just stand the ultimate test of time? At once a yardstick, a determinant and an accomplice of the evolutionary process, sport, with the passing of each year, imbibes the essence of the entire human experience, of which it is a mere part. In a year that was shrouded by a killing economic and security crisis, it was the palliative quality of sport that came to the fore, instilling a whit of hope and good sense in a collapsing civil society. No single sportsperson has left a more indelible mark on 2008 than that peculiar specie of the American human-fish called Michael Phelps. While most nations fretted and fumed to conjure up a solitary medal, Phelps came to the Beijing Olympics with huge expectations of surpassing the mother of all records — Mark Spitz’s seven gold haul at Munich — and exited the land of the Dragon with eight shiny discs of the noble metal swinging from his neck. The 23-year-old, described by ‘The Baltimore Sun’ as a “solitary man” with “rigid focus”, rewrote one Olympic and seven world records within a span of eight days, compelling Spitz to comment: “This goes to show you that not only is this guy the greatest swimmer of all time and the greatest Olympian of all time, he’s maybe the greatest athlete of all time.” My money is on Phelps, make that all my money. This, of course, was the year of the Olympics, the year that the best of the best competed for a place in the almanacs. And if Phelps and his albatross-like span held sway in the waters, another advanced creature of speed electrified the proceedings on dry land. Jamaican Usain Bolt, the glitziest thing to have hit men’s athletics since Carl Lewis at the Los Angeles Games, romped home in three of the most popular events: the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Bolt set the track on fire, blew away his rivals — and to continue with elemental metaphors — poured water on cynics who had questioned the practicality of his participation in the three premier events. Another significant occurrence was the displacement of American supremacy by Chinese determination as the red-brigade raked in 51 gold medals. Closer home, a polite, unassuming gunman from Chandigarh made history by winning his country’s first individual gold medal in 108 years of Olympic participation. Abhinav Bindra bagged gold in the Men’s 10m Air Rifle with a nerveless last shot that he nailed for a 10.8. He also divided the remainder of the year between accepting honorary doctorates and saying that he needed to “rest and take a long break from the game”. The boyish, Doon School-educated shooter said that being able to afford a decent training set-up at home had been a definite advantage and promised that he would deploy his new-found stature to facilitate both schooling and shooting for young boys and girls. The young boys of this country, though, along with the old boys and the not-so-old men, spent a large amount of their time doting on 11 individuals who, in the past 12 months, wrought themselves into a fighting Test match unit with a nose for victory. Nobody symbolised this transformation of the Indian Test team more implicitly than Sachin Tendulkar, the wisest head in the Indian camp, when he dug deep and buried England, and his doubts, for a glorious victory in the Chennai Test. For so long has Sachin been a part of everybody’s family that his failures and successes are taken personally, at times with anger, at most times with unbridled joy. In hindsight, how fitting it seems that it was Sachin who extricated India from the depths of its darkest hour, both on the field and off it, with the morale-uplifting timeliness of his innings. Earlier in the year, as India’s financial clout, which translates itself into a virtual power of attorney for running the game, increased in bulk and influence, its cricket team put one across the dominant Australians at home. Australia’s end, if one dare calls it that, could be classified as a demise only if one used its own faultless record in the last decade as a yardstick. Last heard, the Aussies were beaten by the Proteas on a lively Perth wicket. There was another downfall in 2008 that was a demotion only by the exalted standards set by the man himself. Roger Federer’s plans of a fabled, all-sweeping year never materialised. Instead, they ran into a Spanish wall of steel who etched his own name in the book of history. AP Rafael Nadal... growing from strength to strength, from surface to surface. Rafael Nadal grew from strength to strength, from surface to surface, and shredded to infinity talk of him being a clay court bully. Nadal and Federer, each a mirror and a testifier to the other’s gifts, played out a mythical five-set showdown at Wimbledon, that ended with the Majorcan’s coronation in the fading light; the number one ranking and the gold medal at the Olympics came soon after. Rafa also led Spain to the Davis Cup final, where his participation was curtailed by injury. The Spaniards won anyway, to cap a memorable year that also saw them take home the European Football Cup without the loss of a single match. The swank universe of club football, though, spent the latter half of the year staving off repercussions of the economic meltdown. Sponsorships, if one believed the doomsayers, were dying, salaries were being slashed, and the general picture of gloom predicted for ‘big money’ sports such as Formula One and golf matched that of the moribund giants of the American economy. Honda Racing pulled out of Formula One citing the irrelevance of “non-essential costs” in view of the raging financial maelstrom. The sport, however, was blessed with its youngest champion ever in 23-year-old McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. He brought colour and competitive causticity to the asphalt and became the first English world champion since Damon Hill in 1996. Consider this, when this whole meltdown/downturn thing that you keep reading about in the papers happened, you waited for it to hit you. And, in a way, it did. That distant relative of yours got pink-slipped, fuel prices — for a while at least — hit the roof, and commodities and essentials became progressively out of reach. But then you always had your TV sets tuned to that humdinger at Old Trafford and your heroes from the fields of dreams were, you assumed, impervious to something as clerkish as ‘economics’. What relevance, you would have questioned, did sport have in times such as these? Sport, after all, is just a gamy, half-serious combat between gifted individuals who never quite grew up, right? Wrong. As one realises, with increased understanding at the passing of each year, sport is much more than points scored and goals netted and trophies won. More now than ever, it is an apt way to remind society of all that is good and wholesome in mankind. Printer friendly page   Send this article to Friends by E-Mail Contents • Daily Sports • The Hindu • Business Line • Frontline • Publications • eBooks • Images Copyright © 2008 Sportstar Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of Sportstar.