Phelps at the Rio Olympics should be the highlight of the year
THE past year is already ancient history. From a local perspective, the desultory form of Bafana, the Springboks and the Proteas is best left in another age. Besides, we must start a new year with positive thoughts and look to the promise of exciting things to come.
If 2015 was the year of Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, with undercard roles for Dan Carter, Katie Ledecky and Lionel Messi, what might 2016 herald?
Our giants aren’t in their realm, but if AB de Villiers can crack on and Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh can embellish their Olympic legends, we may yet have something to celebrate in what shapes to be a difficult, challenging year.
Mid-year offers us the allure of the Rio Olympic Games. Nothing else comes close for sheer scale, not Euro 2016, nor cricket’s T20 lark.
Djokovic was, undoubtedly, the personality of 2015, his oncourt excellence and off-court shtick offering tennis a compelling storyline throughout the year. Williams wasn’t far off and there can be little doubt that she is the greatest women’s player of all, albeit in an era without any truly memorable rivalries.
The nature of tennis means that defeats are an inevitable by-product of playing around 90 games a season.
Shocks are more frequent than in, say, athletics, where anything but first place for Usain Bolt constitutes a massive upset.
It’s difficult seeing anything but injury catching up with Bolt. Drugs fiend Justin Gatlin was seen off in 2015 and Yohan Blake has been hobbled by injury.
Bolt’s world record 9.58 was run seven years ago, and in the past few years only Blake has got remotely close to it. Can’t see Bolt slipping up when the world’s best sprinters get set on August 14.
Olympic Sevens will be fun to watch and South Africa will be there or thereabouts, but there’s still something lightweight about the cut-down version of the game.
If I had to stick my neck out and select the personality of the 2016 Games, and perhaps of the year, I’d opt for Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of them all.
We know him for coming second to Le Clos in the sensational 200m butterfly final in London, but the more objective recognise him for his staggering haul of 18 gold medals out of 22 in all, spanning four Olympics.
Phelps will be the go-to man for the Big Story in Rio because he retired after London, had run-ins with the law for drunken driving, was suspended and underwent rehabilitation. Then he returned to the pool and won three US championship medals, swimming the fastest times of 2015. He’s also got engaged to a former Miss California, and they are expecting a baby in May.
Now he’s back and chasing Olympic gold again. As comebacks go, this one is off the charts. Hollywood invented the story of the great American triumph, and Phelps fits that narrative squarely.
His appetite for racing is legendary, but thus far he’s pencilled in three events for Rio: the 100m and 200m butterfly, and 200 IM.
Le Clos took some pops at Phelps last year, but he subsequently recalibrated his remarks, showing due respect for the greatest swimmer in history.
Phelps’ presence on the Rio pool deck will concentrate Le Clos’ mind like nothing else, and it will motivate him massively. “The butterfly races are on my mind, and Michael Phelps’ butterfly world records have been on my mind since I won gold in London,” he said last August.
We know Le Clos isn’t daunted by the majesty of Phelps, and their clashes could be among the mostawaited in Brazil.
Phelps will desperately want to win the 200m gold he so narrowly lost, while Le Clos will feel the same about the 100m, which he lost by 23/100ths of a second in 2012.
Now 30 and with changed perspective, what Phelps now does in the water is remarkable. He’ll be the old man of the pool, but ambition will count for much and only a fool would discount his chances.
Phelps, back? Bet on it being the sports story of 2016.