TheSportsCampus

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Another year has gone past, leaving us with more sports to add to our video libraries. As with every twelve month passage, there have been performances to savour, athletes to be in awe of and moments to remember.

China's leap to No.1 at the Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra getting India her first ever Olympic Gold medal, Tiger Woods' one legged win at the U.S. Open, India's test series win against Australia, Spain's resurgence in European football, Manchester United's double, all these and more make the season gone by memorable.

Our picks for sportspersons of the year point to the fact that this was a young man's year, a time for the princes to be crowned kings. From an astonishingly fast sprinter to a special footballer. From the first left handed tennis player in a decade to be No.1 to the young black driver who made history. From the shark of the Olympics to its Queen, her e they are.

Usain Bolt

The essence of outdoor sport is to see man run. Run as fast as he can. And the stage that matters: The 100 metre final at the Olympics. It is a sporting moment like no other. Eight super athletes competing for the title of ‘fastest man on earth' in an event that lasts ten seconds.

But this year at the Beijing Olympics, the only lanes that seemed to matter were in the pool. Michael Phelps and Speedo were dining on World Records in the ‘Cube' for breakfast, lunch and dinner while the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium wore a deserted look, waiting for its turn.

9.69 seconds was all it took to reassert where the essence of the Olympics lay. Usain Bolt ran the fastest 100m race ever, even after taking time out to pound his chest and wave his arms fifteen metres from the finish line in only his fourth international race in the event.

Four days later, in the 200m final, he scorched every step to the tape in 19.30 seconds, beating the one record that track aficionados believed was unassailable, Michael Johnson's dream run of 19.32 seconds at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

He brought track and field back from the dead, and gave it a new lease of life.

A lease that it desperately needed. This most ancient and global sport had been struggling to maintain its relevance and credence over the last six years, with Olympic gold medalists being banned for drug abuse, and a clean star (Bolt was tested thirteen times in 2008, and found substance free) who challenged the limits of human progression was just the antidote.

Bolt ran times of 9.76, 9.72, 9.69, 9.83 and 9.77 seconds in the 100 meters in the five races in which he competed in 2008, all of which are in the ten-fastest legal times in the history of the event. But, the actual impact of his achievements lies in the fact that a lone, young sprinter has made the sport desirable again.

There's no stopping the Usain-ity.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Until 2nd May 2007, the 2006/07 football season belonged to Cristiano Ronaldo. He'd scored 23 goals, had sealed his first English Premier League title with Manchester United, and won the PFA Player's Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Fan's Player of the Year awards.

The two awards he would have cherished most, the FIFA World Player of the Year and a UEFA Champions League Winner's medal were one match away.

There had been speculation that English Premier League footballers had been treated unjustly over the years when it came to the awarding of the FIFA World Player of the Year but with the league title in hand and the Champions league title just two matches away, Ronaldo was a strong contender.

But on that night in the San Siro, Ronaldo was throttled by a Milan defence that had a plan and as they decimated Manchester United's tactics and finally went on to beat Liverpool in the Champions League final, the awards flew out from Ronaldo's pockets to Kaka's.

Questions about his ability to perform in big matches were raised, and they stung.

Shattered as he may have been, Ronaldo responded as only sportsmen of an extremely high caliber do, by bettering his best. In fact, he almost doubled his best.

In 2007/08, Cristiano Ronaldo didn't just gate crash the party, he brought the house down. Scoring 42 (!) goals in all competitions, he anchored Manchester United's Premier League-Champions League double trophy winning season.

Still unpopular in some circles for excessive diving on the field, Ronaldo's transformation from the conniving Portugese midfielder who got club mate Rooney sent off in the 2006 World Cup and then winked at him, to the goal scoring machine of 2008 has been sensational.

The Ballon d'Or has already come his way, and anytime now he should receive the award that got taken away from him on that chilly May night in Milan.

Rafael Nadal

Bullfighting and football missed out on a fine athlete. With his power and speed, not to forget the genes, he could have made a fantastic defensive midfielder for Real Madrid, (assuming he chose not to go down his uncle's path and play for Barcelona) dominating the field with his physical presence, intercepting passes and feeding the playmakers. With his nimble footwork, he could have made many a bull fume and provided a spectacle. He wears red often enough anyway.

But tennis fans wouldn't trade Rafael Nadal Parera for any sport. Thanks to him, the sport is witnessing one of its greatest rivalries of all time and what's more, he's having the better time. On August 17, for the first time in 237 weeks, a name not called Roger Federer was listed as No.1 on the ATP Tour Rankings. There could not have been a worthier successor.

It takes a special athlete on a roll to conquer Mt. Roger, a peak built with such class that mere ascension would not do justice to the climb. It had to be dramatic, it had to hold your attention by the throat and keep you seated in awe.

Base camp was laid in the tax haven of Monte Carlo, where Nadal gained his footing on the territory he owns. Clay. Roland Garros came by and went, and while his victory was not surprising, the margin raised a few eyebrows. By the time the calendar hit the last day of Wimbledon, the battle had reached the rarefied air where a win for the challenger would mean scaling the summit. The mountain yielded, but not before an epic that lasted four hours and forty eight minutes.

Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win slams either side of the English Channel in the same calendar year. He then won Olympic Gold, guided Spain to the Davis Cup Finals, had an 82-11 win-loss record, captured eight titles and ended the season ranked No.1.

It was Rafa's year for the Ages. And he's still just 22.

Lewis Hamilton

2008 was a year of breaking hegemonies. In sport as much as in politics. Two people on either side of the Atlantic, both young, charismatic black men, registered landscape altering victories in their professions. One man won an election, another, a world championship.

Barack Obama became the first African-American President of the United States in 232 years while Lewis Hamilton crashed into the white bastion of motorsport to become the first black man, and the youngest ever, to win a Formula 1 title.

As much as we adore the other, our focus today is on the guy with the hot wheels.

For starters, a guy who is named after Carl Lewis has to be fast. It is a word that does justice to every facet of Hamilton's career. Whether it is his drafting into McLaren under the Young Driver Support Programme or his ascension to the throne in F1.

It could have been faster, of course. Going into the penultimate race of the season in 2007, Hamilton had a 12 point lead over Fernando Alonso and a 17 point lead over Kimi Raikkonen. He only needed to finish one of the two races in second to win the title, but dramatically, he ran into the gravel in China and experienced gearbox problems in the final race in Brazil to be stranded one heartbreaking point behind Raikkonen.

It would have been a dream debut season. First black driver, first debutant to win a title, youngest world champion, but it was not to be.

Forward to the year gone by, and it seemed like a rewind of the previous season was being played out on the circuits, especially towards the end. This time it was Felipe Massa on the chase. Hamilton was leading with a few races to go, and as the last race approached, the difference was 7 points. And then drama.

Hamilton needed to finish atleast fifth to seal the championship, but he lost the position towards the end to Sebastien Vettel and just when it looked like Massa, who was leading through the race, had pipped him to the finish line, Hamilton passed Timo Glock on the last corner of the last lap to win the title.

It was chaos. It was edge-of-the-seat excitement. It was vintage Formula 1. It was Lewis Hamilton's entry into this list.

Michael Phelps

"Swimming isn't everything; Winning is"- Arnold Spitz to his son Mark Spitz

At the core of the super athlete's existence is ego. When he breaks/creates a world record of Spitzian proportions, he must have it for life. So when Mark Spitz won those incredible seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics - all with world records to boot - and chose to retire, at age 22, he could have been forgiven for thinking he would die a world record holder.

Of course, technology can make sharks out of swimmers these days, and so many World records were broken at the Water Cube in the Beijing Olympics that an Olympic record was disappointing news.

There have been many great swimmers since Spitz. There was Matt Biondi, who won seven gold medals in the 1988 Olympics, including 5 gold. Kristin Otto, who collected 6 gold, again in Seoul. Ian ‘Thorpedo' Thorpe, who won 5 gold medals over two Olympics, and dominated the 400m freestyle event.

But never was his record in any trouble. Win eight gold medals in a lifetime, and you'll be in the top 10 swimmers of all time. But eight gold medals in one Olympics? No problem, said Michael Phelps.

Sure, his long torso and short legs reduce the drag force, his 208 cm wing span gives him the levers to pull his body, his body recovers faster due to low levels of lactic acid production and his size 14 paddles allow him to swim fast. Freakish Biology maketh world records but the conquest of his mind is his biggest asset.

Evidence? The only event in which he did not set a World Record at the Beijing Olympics- the 100m butterfly- was his most memorable. With replays showing him almost beaten at the final stroke, he made one, last powerful lunge while Milorad Cavic, his opponent in the lead, glided to the wall. Michael won by one hundredth of a second.

He'd probably read Arnold Spitz's quote after all.

Yelena Isinbayeva

The city of Volgograd in Russia is known for the Battle of Stalingrad, the Volga and beautiful women. It is also home to Yelena Isinbayeva and by default the women's pole vault world record for years to come.

In the past five years, she has been unbeatable, breaking 24 world records on her journey to become the greatest female pole vaulter of all time.

Not bad for a gymnast who once replied to a question on whether she knew who Sergei Bubka was by saying, "No, who is she?"

In 2008, she remained unbeaten in six outings on the field, including four world records. She's been averaging five world records a year since 2004.

Her Olympics performance was the high point of the year. She waited patiently for the lesser vaulters to get knocked out, then stepped up and took her second jump at 4.85m. Game over, the Gold medal was in her pocket.

Now that the competition didn't matter, it was time to get to the real action. Next up was 4.95m. An Olympic record attempt, and surprisingly, she failed the first two times but cleared it on the third.

Having set two world records the previous month, she upped the bar to 5.05m, just one cm above the 5.04m height she'd set two weeks ago (A clever technique adopted from Bubka which guaranteed financial benefits, newsprint and the high number of records)

This time too, she failed the on the first two attempts, but raising the ante on the last one, she glided above the vault, perfect, beautiful technique in motion and the world was hers again.

Female athlete of the year? You bet.

Photograph Copyright in order of appearance: Jmex, Ray Boosen, Eric Draper, Atael W, Eckhard Pecher