You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
...and the same applies to sports personalities being plummeted into the celebrity limelight.
Last night, the BBC held the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) 2018 awards in Birmingham. Each year, this special evening sees sporting heroes swap their usual sports kit for glad-rags and high heeled shoes many struggle to walk in (I feel as a fellow athlete I can say this because I'm exactly the same). These inspiring sports personalities had been taken right out of their comfort zone and dropped into a night of celebrity status, one which many more extroverted athletes thrive in, however the more introverted sportspeople become rabbits in headlights.
As previously discussed in my earlier post about retired athletes, most athletes don't get into their sport for the glory alone: they are in it to push themselves, to be the best they can be, to represent their country, and so on. Some do still revel in the spotlight - gregarious characters such as Usain Bolt or Mike Tyson. However, it's still inevitable if you put someone not accustomed to celebrity status into an event of publicity and stardom, they're going to struggle to say the least.
Last night was a prime example as Welsh cyclist, Geraint Thomas, won the prestigious award after he won this year's Tour de France. I cannot express how happy I was to see Thomas win the award, and believe him to be an excellent athlete and appear to be a wonderful person on the whole. However, regardless of this excellence, the man seemed terrified once placed on the stage in front of an arena of people and told to do an acceptance speech - nevertheless, he took it all in his stride.
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| Thomas on the podium of this year's Tour de France (Source: Giphy) |
Gary Lineker handed the microphone over to Thomas as he arrived on stage. Geraint cleared his throat and confessed he "really should've thought about what [he] was going to say". He composed himself wonderfully however and discussed inspiration and the insanity of what he has achieved. Thomas thanked his wife and parents graciously, before going onto thanking his team. But he had an interesting and very entertaining way to thank his head coach, Dave Brailsford...
Got to thank my team. Dave B: I've been under him... Oh that sounds dodgy! He's been my boss since I was 17.The social awkwardness of an introverted athlete shone through, yet with a nervous laugh, the harmless innuendo rippled through the audience and back into Thomas to lift his spirits once more. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live later that evening, Geraint Thomas acknowledged his nerves, admitting he thought "I did waffle a bit in my speech, didn't I?"
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| Geraint Thomas receiving SPOTY 2018 last night (Source: Evening Standard) |
Geraint appeared similarly nervous as a guest on yesterday morning's Sunday Brunch on Channel 4, ahead of the evening's awards ceremony. On the program, he stood alongside outgoing characters such as comedian Ed Gamble, and musician Yungblud - who presenter Simon Rimmer had to apologize for after he swore live on air.
SPOTY demonstrated once again that although you can take the celebrity status to the sportspeople, the extroverted nature of the celebrity won't always shine through. Nevertheless, the sporting community will still adore these characters regardless of their shyness in front of the camera: just take tennis player Andy Murray's acceptance speech when he won SPOTY in 2013...
No matter how excited I try to sound, my voice still sounds incredibly boring.
Andy Murray's acceptance speech for winning SPOTY 2013
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