Confessing Evangelical

An eloquent testimony to (i) a generally dismal year for British sport, and (ii) our collective celebrity-obsession, is the fact that a comedian, David Walliams, is currently the bookies' favourite to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year this December. I haven't felt quite so depressed by a popular vote of this type since Princess Diana led the early voting for "Greatest Briton" a few years back (leading me to vote early, vote often for Isambard Kingdom Brunel, with occasional side-bets on Churchill).

A spokesperson for one bookmaker comments that Walliams' achievement in swimming the Channel (and, to be fair, raising £1m for Sport Relief in the process):

...compares very favorably with anything that any UK sportsperson can boast so far in 2006.

Of course, despite the use of the word "sportsperson", what the spokesperson means is sportsman. As the BBC gratifyingly reminded us on its website yesterday, there is a sportswoman whose accomplishments this year outshine anything achieved by David Walliams: Nicole Cooke. Today's Guardian joins the chorus.

Nicole Cooke is Britain's leading cyclist (without any gender-based qualification being necessary in that statement), and has had an astonishingly successful year, winning the Grande Boucle Feminine (the women's Tour de France), rapidly approaching a second World Cup title, and becoming the first British cyclist to top the world rankings.

What's more, in contrast to (ahem) many leading male cyclists, she is universally acknowledged to be "clean". Indeed she is "vehemently anti-drugs", to the extent she even refuses to inject legal substances such as sugars or amino acids, "or to share a room with anyone who does so" - since she sees this as the start of a slippery slope.

Of course, as the Guardian points out, the reason Cooke is not a household name, with "her picture on the back of cereal packets", is simply that "In this country, women's cycling is a Cinderella sport within a Cinderella sport", and a sport that does not have a great record on encouraging women's participation (though one of the most famous and well-loved British cyclists was also a woman, the legendary Beryl Burton).

Despite the opening couple of paragraphs, this post isn't about having a minority-sport whinge. Being realistic, the prospects of Nicole Cooke winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year are minimal, and I'm sure Cooke herself is more focused on getting a few more yellow or rainbow jerseys in her wardrobe, or the Olympic gold that she missed out on in 2004.

But it was good to have a reminder that this year has seen at least one remarkable sporting achievement under British colours, and to see Nicole Cooke being a little more widely celebrated.