A betting favourite of mine and I had a punt on this a few weeks ago. Stupidly I put £5 on my selection on betfair (40's) and since then his odds have tumbled. Anyway, after hearing about the lad on the radio today, I have been on betfair on had some more on him at 19.5 and 19's.
Anyway - my selection for this year is none other than Tom Daley. Who you might ask?
Quote:
Thirteen-year-old Tom Daley is the new European champion after winning the 10m platform title in Eindhoven in Holland. The second-youngest male Olympian in British history after he qualified for Beijing, Daley produced flawless dives in rounds four and five.
That saw Daley, from Plymouth, awarded four marks of 10 in each round.
His final round dive was less impressive but he had done enough to hold off Germany's Sascha Klein and Francesco Dell'Uomo, of Italy.
Daley finished with a score of 491.95 points, ahead of Klein on 487.60pts and Dell'Uomo on 481.30.
At Beijing Daley has a chance to become Britain's youngest male medallist.
This lad, bear in mind he's 13 and beating world class athletes 20 years his senior, has the ability to be the sensation of the summer. More specifically, the sensation of the Olympic games and we all know how much the press bigs up our Olympic lads and lasses.
4 years to London 2012, come the summer the Olympics and this lad will be all over the papers. Get in there while you can!
Dont worry, I will move this to "other sports" afterwards but thought it deserved to be in Talk Sports at the moment because its quite topical.
i must admit AFU i had a wry smile while reading that as i too thought who the fcuk is Tom Daley, thinking about it I can only see him getting Sports Personality of the year if he wins gold but you never know as we don't seem to have that many other sporting greats knocking about at the moment unless Hamilton wins F1 this time around.
The thing is Slick, most of our elite sportsmen and women are cunts. And those that arent are rubbish. I cant imagine any footballer winning SPOTY because bar Beckham, they're all council estate trash with loads of money who go round gobbing it off to referees and shagging page 3 models all the time.
Even the saintly Lewis Hamilton is losing popularity - whether or not he wins the world title this year (and I would say not for the record) he wont win SPOTY. The fact that he moved to Switzerland to dodge tax makes him unpopular with some, also the mere fact that he's a successful bloke who earns lots of money will also dissuade some of the voting public.
I'm a really good judge of people, I have been one myself now for nearly 26 years and I know what people like. And the people want a pubescant champion in an obscure sport, that had received next to no media coverage before now to be Sports Personality of the Year 2008.
I'd go along with Slick, unless he wins gold I can't see him doing any better than Young Sports Personality of the Year (which he win last year too). I know nothing whatsoever about diving, so no idea whether he's capable of winning gold. Price is in to 9 now though, no value now at all IMO.
I wouldn't be surprised to see this won by an Olympic competitor though. There's no major events going on in football, rugby or cricket this year (well, none that any of the home nations are involved in, which is what counts for the purposes of SPotY). It's the usual questions in that case, I guess. Can Hamilton win the F1? Can Murray win a grand slam? If one of the Brits beat Tiger in one of the major golf tournaments, would that be enough to win it?
I wouldn't be surprised to see this won by an Olympic competitor though. There's no major events going on in football, rugby or cricket this year (well, none that any of the home nations are involved in, which is what counts for the purposes of SPotY). It's the usual questions in that case, I guess. Can Hamilton win the F1? Can Murray win a grand slam? If one of the Brits beat Tiger in one of the major golf tournaments, would that be enough to win it?
The problem in my eyes with an Olympian, is that all the good athletes are in sports that people dont really bond with. We have a world class track clycling team with world class men and women in all of the distances and yet the general public doesnt give a shit.
Vicky Pendleton, Bradley Wiggins et all are all brilliant competitors in their field but the public doesnt give two hoots about cycling. I cant see them capturing the imagination of the 'great' British Public I am afraid.
As you have mentioned RC, there are no big team sports this year - in that Cricket, Football & Rugby are all having yet another off year and I cant see any of those sportsmen making the headlines. I suppose the Ryder Cup could provide us with a superstar performance although I cant see it happening.
But for me the SPOTY is all about a combination of success against the odds, human interest/tabloid fodder and a few tears for good measure. This little lad has the lot IMO.
We have a world class track clycling team with world class men and women in all of the distances and yet the general public doesnt give a shit.
Vicky Pendleton, Bradley Wiggins et all are all brilliant competitors in their field but the public doesnt give two hoots about cycling.
Meanwhile, you just can't keep diving off the back pages
Sorry, I know what you mean though in that this is a bit different due to him being only 13. However, has anyone seen any interviews with him or anything? If he's a fairly normal, level-headed kid then fair enough, but let's face it, a lot of kids of that age are complete cunts aren't they? I see he's from Plymouth, I've no idea what teenagers are generally like in that area, but if he turns out to be a bit of a scally (although admittedly diving doesn't seem a very scallyish activity) then that could easily go against him.
And on a completely unrelated note, they really should get rid of the word "personality" from the title, shouldn't they? It's nothing to do with their personality, it's to do with their achievements.
Meanwhile, you just can't keep diving off the back pages
You just wait til the summer, the hacks have nothing much to write about so they conjour up a bit of interest and write stories galour about this lad - he'll be the sensation of the summer I tell ye!
did you see hamilton trying to start his car at the last race, holy fcuk i could have started it quicker myself, he must have forgot the dont have launch control or traction control anymore, i dont see him beating the ferraris this year so lessing his chances of winning spoty, i think we would need to wait till after the summer to see who wins what.
Sports Personality of the Year 2008
What are you thinking boy?
