Sports hero vanquished greatest in the game
SCOTS who came of age before the London Olympics associated sport with national humiliation. If we qualified for the big tournaments – and it was a big if – we were destined for an early bath.
Then Murray beat his rival Roger Federer in front of a home crowd to win a gold medal. He went on to beat another of the era’s greatest players, Novak Djokovic, at the US Open.
For the first time ever, a Scots sports personality was taking on the world and winning. That was amazing enough. But Murray played tennis, in a country with minimal infrastructure and support for the game.
He was competing against some of the finest athletes who have ever played tennis. And acing it.
It was a lot to compute. And it got better. The Andy Murray who announced his retirement yesterday is more than a sporting hero. BY ANNA BURNSIDE anna.burnside@reachplc.com down tears as they announced the end of their professional career. He was not always so open in front of the world’s media. His dry sense of humour translated badly into soundbites. The adjective “dour” was often applied. It took him a while to find a way of being Scottish that suited him. There were pelters during the 2006 World Cup when he claimed to support “anyone but England”. He did not like it when Alex Salmond unfurled a Saltire after he won Wimbledon in 2013 – in the Davis Cup and the Olympics, he plays for Team GB. After years of dodging questions about independence, he broke cover in the run up to the referendum.
Hours before the polls closed, he tweeted: “Huge day for Scotland today! No campaign negativity last few days totally swayed my view on it. Excited to see the outcome. Let’s do this!”
He has not returned to the constitutional debate but his roots here are deep. Having survived the attack on Dunblane Primary, he is understandably prickly on the subject of his home town’s recent history. But he got married in the local cathedral, in the nearest thing Scotland will have to a royal wedding. The reception was in nearby Cromlix Hotel, which he bought in 2013.
The gold letterbox that celebrates his first Olympic medal is a landmark in Dunblane High Street.