HIGHS AND FAR TOO MANY LOWS OF 2017 P
HYPODERMIC needles and toxic tales of transgression became an unwelcome currency of top-level sport in 2017 as an array of allegations threatened to overshadow stellar achievements by the year’s brightest stars.
Such was the scale of the exposed that it completely overshadowed an entire Winter Olympic Games.
Back home, some of our knighted Olympians were forced onto the defensive:
amid a saga arising from Team Sky’s inability to adequately account for the contents of a medical package, and
dogged by questions over his relationship with controversial American coach Alberto Salazar. In each case, all involved strenuously deny committing any offence and have not been found to have broken any rules.
Sir Mo had a better end to 2017, landing the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award. Sir Mo Farah with England his SPOTY trophy women’s
football manager was sacked over allegations of inappropriate relations with players in a previous job, and was separately found to have made racially discriminatory comments towards two players.
clattering coronation as world heavyweight champion after dethroning Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley proved nice guys can still finish first. The millions of pounds heading Joshua’s way seem unlikely to alter the character of a man that sport – and boxing in particular – so desperately needs. won a third snooker
triumphed at became only the third man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta double in the same year, before defending himself over his use of asthma medication at the latter.
In the world of football, Pep Guardiola’s deflected concerns over spiralling wages and on-field antics by all but wrapping up the Premier League title before most of us had managed to hang the baubles on our Christmas trees. OLITICAL turmoil, terror attacks and the Grenfell tragedy have been some of the defining themes of 2017.
Manchester, London Bridge, Westminster and Finsbury Park became targets for terrorists, with dozens of people losing their lives and many more being injured.
The Westminster Bridge attack in March saw PC Keith Palmer knifed to death by Khalid Masood as he guarded the Houses of Parliament.
Masood, who also killed four pedestrians as he drove across Westminster Bridge, was shot dead by armed police just feet from Big Ben.
Three months later 71 people died when flames engulfed Grenfell Tower in what was the deadliest fire in When the chips are down: Prime Minister Theresa May in an infamous image from the UK General Election campaign and Donald Trump is sworn in as President of the US London since the Second World War.
Earlier in June a snap election saw Theresa May lose her Tory majority, despite weeks of intense campaigning.
She announced the vote as the country faced growing uncertainty over Brexit, opening the door for herself and other politicians to be followed from chip shops to children’s centres as they hustled for votes.
Campaigning was suspended in May in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing, which claimed 22 lives after an Ariana Grande concert.
A month later, the US star staged an emotional One Love tribute concert for victims at Old Trafford.
News from across the world included US President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, and clashes in Spain following Catalonia’s vote for independence.
The case of Charlie Gard attracted attention as the baby’s parents battled with the courts to allow them to take him to New York for experimental treatment for a rare inherited disease – infantile onset encephalomyopathy mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS). Charlie died on July 28 shortly before his first birthday, after his parents lost their legal fight.
Allegations of sexual harassment rocked Hollywood with revelations about American movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, which inspired the #MeToo movement on social media.