Archives for February 2011

It is a simple fact that most careers in sport end in failure. Losing your place in the team, a defeat in a final or an unsuccessful attempt to recover from injury, even the greatest of champions rarely get out when the going's still good.

Lance Armstrong was one who did, though. In keeping with his remarkable comeback from cancer, he defied the usual script to leave the stage unbowed when he retired after his seventh Tour de France victory in 2005.

Set up for life financially and more famous than he could have ever imagined, Armstrong the athlete, the icon, the survivor, had transcended his sport. Now he was achieving every sportsman's dream, truly going out on top.

And then he came back.

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Abu Dhabi

I've just flirted with Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic (not sure she noticed), quizzed actor Morgan Freeman on the rules of rugby (he hasn't a clue) and watched actor Kevin Spacey do a surprisingly funny version of Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" (even former Australian cricketer Steve Waugh laughed).

This is not a typical sports news gig. Nobody has gone bust, failed a drugs test or had their lottery funding taken away from them. And there are far too many sequins. This is show time at the Laureus World Sports Awards and I am the scruffiest individual on the red carpet.

To be honest, the last time I did something like this I managed to insult a nation by suggesting the 2006 Ryder Cup's opening ceremony was a bit, well, overblown. I would I like to apologise to Ireland for that outrageous slur, the K Club classic was a local dignitary with a ribbon and a pair of scissors compared to "sport's Oscars" in Abu Dhabi.

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When people knock at my door, it is usually because they want me to give them money. Nothing wrong with that - they are nearly always polite - but it would be nice if it was the other way around for once.

Sadly, that is unlikely as I don't think any of my ancestors lived in south-east London a century ago. If they had, there is a chance they might have taken a £1 gamble on a new company called Arsenal Football Club Limited.

Pressing debts had seen its predecessor go bust in 1910 but this firm, whose only product was Woolwich Arsenal, seemed to have more get-up-and-go about it. So much get-up-and-go, in fact, that three years later it moved to north London, dropped the "Woolwich" and became a football giant.

A century later, many of those shares, of which 1,280 were issued, have been forgotten about or lost. But they have not stopped growing in value. That £1 punt is now worth almost £90,000, which is why some fortunate people have been getting knocks on the door from private investigators with good news.

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