Chance to become first among equals
Elite club ready to welcome new member but contenders are tough to split
PERHAPS IT IS MY ADMIRATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL SPORTSPERSON, FIRST FOR MED IN THE UCD CAULDRON IN THE EARLY 1990 S, THAT SWINGS MY VOTE
IF sport remains just a “magnificent triviality”, to quote the great Hugh McIlvanney, does that mean sports awards are mere baubles?
Try telling that to any of the winners of the Irish Independent
Sportstar of the Year, beginning with the first, Nicky English in 1989, three-times winner Pádraig Harrington, or the last, Paul O’Donovan.
Each year, our galaxy of previous winners, along with our Sportstars of the Week, congregate and share laughter and tales, bonded by a friendship forged by sporting endeavours at home and abroad, whether for multi-million euro cheques or barely the price of a litre of petrol.
This is a unique winners’ circle; the names that reside there are so legendary that some are known only by their nicknames – ROG, Ruby, Paulie, AP, Drico.
Their feats have lit up our lives and, through the pages of our newspapers, it often feels as if they have become an extended member of our families.
That is what makes sport so unique in this country; it is built upon an intimate relationship between the competitors and the Irish public which, even in this often cold and detached digital age, continues to thrive.
SCIENCE
These days, sporting achievements are often (legally) helped by science but they cannot be scientifically measured; we do not – yet – live in a world where scientific truth is measured by the popularity of the scientist promoting it.
Sports fans are never all alike; there are those who remain priggishly parochial in their interests, spurning the often pompously patriotic.
Why, some of us recall 1990, not in the manner that the Irish
Independent’s readers in their thousands did by crowning Packie (another nickname) as their Sportstar of the Year, but as the epoch-making emergence of St Patrick’s Athletic as League of Ireland winners.
Or maybe it was just me... Sport is too emotive and much too personal – which is why some adore MMA and snooker but abhor NFL and darts.
There is often no logic to the Irish person’s sporting preferences.
And hence there can be none when applied to sports awards but that is not to deny that there is an absence of rigour.
Every recipient of our award has been deeply appreciative, aware that their name was affixed to the voting slip only after lengthy introspection.
This may be merely a ‘popularity’ contest in the eyes of those who occupy the high moral ground beyond the sporting arena.
But if the deliberations are often more comprehensive and detailed than that undertaken in the privacy of a polling booth, perhaps that says more about the place modern Irish politics has in our lives than Irish sport.
After all, if any of our nominees turned up to your door on an icy evening begging for your vote, would they not more likely be turned away with a slapped door?
Mercifully, our stars are not so needy; they are just as selfish though, driving themselves with a commitment beyond mere mortals.
If it seems impossible to draw a definitive line between the vast array of Irish contenders for this year’s prize, that’s because it is.
Having already acknowledged that, in sport, practical calculations must make way for subjective tastes, how then is it possible to decide a hurler being better than a footballer, a Jump jockey matching his Flat counterpart, a sprinter trumping a marathon runner?
How can you compare swimming and rowing? Or the feats of one player on a soccer field compared to one on a rugby pitch or a hockey surface?
Numbers cannot suffice. The hungriest points accumulator is not always man – or woman – of the match and, regardless of how many races or games or legs or ties won, losing the one that matters might make all the difference.
So it is near damn impossible to pick a winner. Which is why the outcome is always challenged in the bar and the sitting-room and the clubhouse afterwards. Because this is sport and sport matters.
My opinion, for what it is worth – and I always argue to readers encountered in those same pubs and clubs that theirs is worth substantially more – alights upon the name of Paul O’Donovan.
Perhaps it is my admiration for the individual sportsperson, first forged in the UCD cauldron in the early 1990s, that swings my vote his way.
It is always much harder for one to thrive alone compared to the one amongst many.
The 23-year-old, maintaining Skibbereen’s eagle-eyed influence in global affairs, soared in the 2016 Olympiad with brother Gary in a year that also featured a world title.
The difficulty was to back up those feats; Paul did so with another triumph on the world stage.
Any individual athlete will tell you that defending a title is always harder than winning the first one.
As our boxing stars take a hiatus, there is no regular retinue of Olympic, World and European champions in our midst.
All-Ireland champions in all codes abound. Stephen Cluxton is a hero to many and provided me with one of the sporting highlights of my life in 2011 but was Con O’Callaghan not as much as a star this year too?
INJUSTICE
‘Clucko’ was shamefully denied an All-Star but to right that wrong would compound an injustice within these pages.
For all of our equine achievements – this country’s only consistently world-class discipline – we submit that the genius of Ballydoyle would wince if he had to conduct his operations from the limited confines of the Skibbereen stables.
Rowing remains a minority sport even for this often waterlogged isle; such that achievements on such a global scale are magnified in our eyes.
This award is as much about those making the choice – you – as it is about the chosen one.
For me, O’Donovan should once again be crowned Irish
Independent Sportstar of the Year. But, whoever wins it, will deserve it; he, or she, will be first among equals.