The ‘granny’ of SPOTY is not ready to quit just yet!
Aged 44 and still going strong, Sarah Storey would be joint-oldest winner
A QUARTER of a century separates the two women on the Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. ‘I am the granny on the list,’ laughs 44-year-old Dame Sarah Storey, who has been nominated alongside 19-year-old Emma Raducanu. ‘It’s amazing to think that I’m still competing and we are peers, even though we are from a different generation.’ Should tomorrow’s public vote go the way the bookies expect, US Open champion Raducanu would become the youngest SPOTY winner since Michael Owen in 1998, as well as the first female since Zara Phillips in 2006. The youngest in the show’s history is swimmer Ian Black, who was 17 when he won in 1958, while the oldest was also 44, golfer Dai Rees in 1957. ‘It is an omen,’ smiles Storey. ‘The crazy thing about this number 44 is that Emma broke a dry spell of 44 years for a British woman to win a Grand Slam.’ By the time Raducanu was born in 2002, Storey — then Sarah Bailey and a swimmer not a cyclist — had appeared at three Paralympics and won 11 medals, with five golds. Storey embraces her elder status, tweeting #doingitfortheover40s when the SPOTY shortlist was announced on Monday. But she also wants to remind us she was once a teenage sensation herself. ‘When Emma won in New York, she was the same age I was in Atlanta in 1996,’ recalls the mother of two, who actually won her first two golds four years earlier in Barcelona aged just 14. ‘I had also just done my A-levels and got my results on the poolside in Atlanta, then went on to win three gold medals the following week. I got my first mobile phone after I won that fifth gold in ’96 — one of those Nokia bricks — because I was going to university. ‘I remember watching Emma win and being like, “Wow”. Realising the age she was brought back all of those memories and it was lovely to be able to share them with my daughter Louisa and husband Barney.’ Storey watched Raducanu’s US Open win from a hotel in London, the night before GB’s Paralympics homecoming party at Wembley. It was nine days after Storey had made her own history at Tokyo 2020, winning the C4-5 road race to secure her third gold of the Games and a record 17th overall, surpassing swimmer Mike Kenny as the most successful British Paralympian of all time. ‘It’s taken some time to sink in,’ she says. ‘I think the record was a bigger thing for everybody outside than I realised. It wasn’t until I got home that it struck me. ‘So many people told me they stayed up to watch my race in the middle of the night because that point of history was important. I feel very proud about that.’ Storey’s story still has at least one more chapter. She has confirmed plans to compete at Paris 2024 and has not ruled out riding in her 50s at Los Angeles 2028. ‘I have no idea whether I’ve reached my peak yet, but I’d like to try and find out,’ she adds. ‘Age is just a number if you enjoy what you’re doing and you make good decisions and stay fit and healthy. ‘I was asking my coach, “Is there something I’ve done?” and he said, “You listen to your body and enjoy what you’re doing”. A number of people have said to me they’re inspired by the idea that you don’t have to worry about how old you are. It’s cool to have the vast majority of the general population saying, “Just go for it, girl”.’