January 16, 2007

Apologies if any of these were posted at the time, but even if they were, they're probably worth another look: November 2006 - David Owen, America's best golf writer, talks to Tiger Woods about motivation and the search for happiness and reveals why there is no limit to what he can achieve. October 2006 - Has China sold its soul for success? September 2006 - Seve: The man who saved the Ryder Cup August 2006 - Budhia Singh was sold as a baby by his illiterate and impoverished mother. Now, aged five, he is India's most improbable young sports star, famed for his astonishing feats of endurance running. July 2006 - Imran Khan was more than just Pakistan's cricket captain. He was a warrior, an ambassador and a playboy of the Western world. But after retirement and divorce from one of Britain's most glamorous heiresses, he is dedicating his life to saving his country from political corruption. June 2006 - Argentina's military junta was determined to make the 1978 World Cup a propaganda victory for the hosts. Tim Pears reveals the psyche of a nation at war with itself but united behind its football team and unravels the strange mix of politics, sport, corruption and brutality of an extraordinary month. [Part Two] May 2006 - In 1959, Cesare Maestri scaled the forbidding Patagonian peak of Cerro Torre in what was hailed as 'the greatest climbing feat of all time'. The trouble is, his partner died on the way down and, in a sport where honesty and trust are crucial, no one else could verify his tale. Controversy simmered. Had Maestri reached the top or not? Late last year, one man set out to find the truth in the only way possible - by climbing the same dangerous route. April 2006 - Millions of children grow up in America playing football. But they all give up by the age of 10. Award-winning writer Dave Eggers explains just why his country will never understand the sport they insist on calling soccer. March 2006 - Leon and Michael Spinks both won Olympic gold and the world heavyweight title. One beat Ali, the other lost only to Mike Tyson. Now, while one brother lives in a luxury $5m house on America's East Coast, the other is a cleaner at a YMCA 1,000 miles away earning the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. February 2006 - To watch Michael Jordan play was, said one of his rivals, 'to see God disguised as a basketball player'. In the latest in our occasional series of essays on sporting icons, novelist Benjamin Markovits celebrates the brilliance of the six-time NBA champion and the first black sports star to be truly embraced by white America. January 2006 - Award-winning novelist and lifelong tennis fan Paul Bailey argues that Roger Federer is not just the best in the world: he is the most complete player in history, a direct descendant of the classic stylists who ruled before brute force squeezed grace from the game.

posted by JJ at 05:32 AM on January 16, 2007