When you are talking about sports in the year 2008, there are quite a few athletes who stepped up their games and broke out into the spotlight. It is somewhat hard to narrow it down to a small number to consider for best athlete of the year, let alone to actually pick one. But we shall do our best.
There are those who had great years, but don't quite make the cut into the top echelons of individual performances in 2008.
Eli Manning burst out of the enormous shadow of his older brother, taking the New York Giants to the Super Bowl win in 2008, and continuing the winning ways in the following season. Everyone remembers the Helmet Catch, but forgets that Eli should have been tackled two or three times before even throwing that ball.
Padraig Harrington won two majors on the PGA Tour, successfully defending his British Open Championship and also picking up the PGA Championship. He moved up to third in world rankings and deservedly was honored as the PGA Tour Player of the Year.
Candace Parker won a second straight women's NCAA basketball championship, was the MOP of the tournament, was drafted first overall into the WNBA, became only the second woman to dunk in a WNBA game, and won both the rookie of the year and MVP honors in her first WNBA season.
Lebron James singlehandedly carried a team yet again that had no business being remotely competitive and gave the eventual champs, the Boston Celtics, a run for their money. His numbers are consistently mind-boggling and he continues his ascent up Mt. Jordan in his quest to be the best player ever.
Rafael Nadal finally burst through, winning Wimbledon, the first major tournament he has won outside of the French Open. He shook off the mantle of being the best second-rated player ever, finally passing Roger Federer to be ranked number one in the world.
All great performances, but none of them make the final three of the best athletes of 2008. These next athletes stood head and shoulders above everyone else. One, a man who has withstood the spotlight for seemingly forever, surprising us yet again. The other two amateur athletes, giving it their all for four years for their one shot at glory. And so we begin.
Tiger Woods has been an international superstar and icon for years now. We knew his name since he started walking, and he has been the greatest thing to happen to the PGA tour in its history. This is a man who doesn't compete against his peers, but history itself. He went into the year having won 13 majors, while most players are lucky to get 1 or 2 in their career. He is chasing the history of Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major wins. What he managed to do this year might top everything he has done before.
Woods started the year working on a five tournament winning streak, virtually unheard of but not even the first time he'd done it. He won his 15th World Golf Championship event. He was playing probably the best golf of his life and was expected to shoot for the Grand Slam, winning all 4 major championships in the same year.
But something wasn't right at the Masters. He struggled greatly, didn't play very well, but still managed to finish second. Days later he underwent arthroscopic surgery and would be out for two months. He returned just in time for the US Open, but again, didn't seem right. He was hobbling, wincing and swearing as he swung his clubs, almost falling over while swinging and using his club as a cane as he walked off the tee boxes. But he struggled through, made some clutch putts, and wound up tied at the end of the tournament, winning the right to walk another 18 holes on the Monday on a bad leg. Somehow he managed to pull it off on the Monday, winning his 14th major championship in grand fashion.
Two days later he announced he would miss the rest of the season to repair an ACL he had torn 10 months ago. The guy had spend almost a year playing on one leg, and still was almost unbeatable. And to top it off, he revealed he had gotten two stress fractures in his leg while recovering from his previous surgery. The fact he could even walk, let alone beat the best in the world was insane. The enormous torque applied on his left knee every time he swung the club should have made this impossible. But not for Tiger Woods. This is what gains him consideration for athlete of the year.
Michael Phelps was the wunderkind. He carried an enormous amount of expectations on his shoulders heading into the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. His goal was to win 8 gold medals in the games, eclipsing Mark Spitz's record of 7 in one games. His training was meticulous, spending 5-6 hours in the pool, every single day for a year. He consumed something like 12,000 calories a day just to keep going.
I remember seeing one of those feel-good, sappy stories that they like to throw on to waste time in between events. It basically declared that Phelps was a genetic freak. He has the torso of someone the height of 6'8" and the lower body of someone who is 5'8". He feet are enormous and act like flipper. His knees and elbows are double-jointed. This guy was built to be a swimmer.
Phelps had a ridiculous schedule with all of the preliminary, semi-final, and final races he had to swim. He often had to finish one swim, and jump back in the water less than an hour to compete in another event. But he was winning them in dominating fashion, smashing world records along the way. His first real test was his second event, the 4x100m freestyle relay event. His teammate managed to pull of a huge upset on the final leg, keeping Phelps dream of winning 8 gold medals alive.
We were scheduling things around being able to see Phelps swim, that's how popular he was this year. The highlight for me was the race he won his 7th gold medal in, the 100-meter butterfly. He somehow miraculously pulled out a win by a fingertip on the last stroke, when it was apparent he was beaten. His relay team would later easily win the last race, giving Phelps his eight gold medals, and his place in history.
Usain Bolt was an anomaly. In the high-pressure, all-important track and field sprint events, he just didn't fit. He was tall and lanky, when sprinters are normally short, squat and powerful. His sprinting form was terrible. He goofed around and liked to showboat when sprinters are normally focused and intense. He held the 100 meter world record even though he had just started running the race and it wasn't even his best race. He wasn't even considered to be an absolute favorite coming into the games.
Then the races were run.
First up was the 100m final, the marquee event of any Summer Olympics. And Bolt absolutely destroyed all of his competitors and everyone's expectation. He set a new world record of 9.69 seconds, amazing even without considering the fact that he basically stopped running after 80 meters. He stood up tall, played to the crowd, and pounded his chest as he crossed the line. Here was a guy doing something better than anyone in history, and he just wanted to have fun.
He followed that up with the 200m final, in which he was shooting to break Michael Johnson's long-held world record time, which he managed to do by two hundredths of a second, clocking in at 19.30s.
Two races. Two world records. Two gold medals. But he wasn't done. He came back and helped Jamaica win the 4x100m spint relay, again in world record time.
Three amazing athletes. Three awe-inspring performances. It's really hard to choose between the three.
I'm a big Tiger Woods fan, but I think he doesn't make it. He put in a gutsy, courageous performance, amazing us when it seemed like we had become accustomed to everything he can do. But I think while the injury made his accomplishments amazing, it also cut his year in half. So mainly for that reason, he doesn't get the crown.
So it comes down to the two Olympic athletes. One expected to be great and achieving it, with the other somewhat coming out of nowhere and showing us pure joy in his accomplishments. Two men who train four years for one shot at being the best, where one tiny mistake can ruin everything.
So who wins?
Usain Bolt. Barely.
Phelps was amazing. He did something that will probably never be equalled. He won when everything seemed lost. So why not him? I don't know really. Maybe because he needed teammates to help him in the relays to get his eight medals? Maybe because we expected it of him?
I think the reasons I'm picking Bolt are two-fold. His absolute joy and ability to have fun while does what he does, better than anyone on the planet. And yes, the fact that he did it while not even trying his hardest at times. I know that might annoy some people, with some even calling it disrespectful, but I simply look at it as this guy is so much better than everyone else, and he's not even doing his best while others are killing themselves.
This truly was the year a tall, lanky, goofy, fun-loving kid from Jamaica with more talent than he knows what to do with was the athlete of year.
Usain Bolt. Best Athlete of 2008.