A prediction

Whether you think it right or wrong (personally I don't mind it at all) but will be plenty of honours awarded New Year's Honours list ro our olympians and paralympians. I only hope that coaches and all the others who made the success possible are properly recognised as well. Still here re my predictions for knight- or damehoods:

David Brailsford the performance director of British cycling and one of the driving forces behind British dominnce of track cycling in recent years

Bradle

Bradley Wiggins the first British Toure de France winner who also won his seventh olympic medl and his fourth gold.

Ben Anslie who won his fourht consecutive Olympic sailing gold medal. He had also won siver in Atlanta. His medal tally means that he is the most successful ever olympic sailor.

 Given team GB's continuing succes in rowing performance director David Tanner may also be knighted

Srah Storey added four gold medals to the two cycling golds she won in Beijing and the 5 golds, 8 silvers and 3 bronzes she won in swimming at the Barcelona,  Atlanta Sydney and Athens games. She is now our most successful paralympian

David Wir who won 4 golds in London dding to the 2 golds 1 silver and 1 bronze he won in Beijings and the silver and bronze he won in Athens

I don't think Mo Farah or Jessica Ennis will receive a knight- or dame-hood this time. If they retain titles in Rio then they will be shoo-ins. Ellie Simmonds is too young.

I would put money on Sebastian Coe becoming a Companion of Honour

As for Chris Hoy he is already a Knight batchelor. Give him another knighthood?

Our Revels now are ended

I'm not a huge sports fan well when I say that I mean I have no interest in cricket (boring), football (nonimlly I was a West Ham fan but my last interest was killed in the fighting in the game against Millwall in 2009) Formula 1 big american games. Mind you I've always enjoyed athletics (not that I had any talent that way apart from being very modestly fast over 100 to 400m) and cycling since the days of  Sean Kelly, Robert Millar and of course Stephen Roche.

That said the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been a wonderful feasts of sport with particular success for British competitors.  For a little while football mercifully took a back seat whci cn only e a good thing.

Perhaps the best thing was that the naysayers had to shut up. Okay there were a few glitches (the North Korean flag thing) but they were minor. The transport system held up, people came in droves and things generally went very smoothly

Will things change? I would like to think so but it won't be long before refugees are vilified again despite this man's achievements:

That's Mo Farah if you have already forgotten. It also won't be long before the tabloids are painting  people with disabilities as benefits scroungers again.See my previous post: Leo McKinstry has already started that shit again.

Despite my cynicism I really do  hope that both games inspire a generation.

A dominance other competitors can dream of

Dutch tennis player Esther Vergeer has just won the women's wheelchair tennis title for the fourth time  thus joining the the small number of olympians and paralympians who have won gold medals at four or more games.

While some events such as swimming  lend themselves to winning large number of medals (see Trishca Zorn with over 30 gold medals from six games) Esther competes in a sport where it is simply not possible to win so many medals ( she has won a total of six golds and one silver the other medals being won in the doubles event, which she is not competing in in 2012)

Outside of the papralympics her dominance is amazing including 42 grand slam titles. What is most astonishing is that she has been undefeated in her last 470 singles matches. That means that she has not lost a match since 2003!

Very few sportsmen and women can come close although Jahangir Khan was undefeated in 555 squash matches between 1981 and 1986. Somehow I get the feling that Esther may ust break that record!

Michael Phelps meet Trischa Zorn

I would be very surprised if Trischa Zorn and Michael Phelps had never met. Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian in terms of medals won - with 18 Golds , 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. It will probably be some time before his amazing record is approached let alone beaten.

Phelps certainly deserves his place among the pantheon of great olympians. Is he the greatest of all? THat is a tough question as comparing one sport with another is like comparing apples and oranges. Is he better than someone who lets say wins Basketball gold medals at three or four consecutive games? That is a question for other armchair sports fans.  But don't think for a second that I am doing Phelps down for this.

Few people could name multiple medal winning paralympians. In the UK Tanni Grey-Thompson would spring to mind but few others. In terms of medals won though, there is one woman who  stands out among them all and that is swimmer  Trischa Zorn

Born in 1964 and blind from birth Trischa has attended seven paralympic games. Sources differ as to the actual number of medals won but this Source appears to be accurate (including team relays) winning the following medals:

At the 1980 Games in Arhhem she won seven gold medals
In 1984 in New York she won at least six gold medals (some sources say ten)
in 1988 in Seoul she won twelve gold medals
in 1992 in Barcelona she won a futher ten gold medals and two silvers
in 1996 in Atlanta she won two golds three silvers and three bronzes
in 2000 in Sydney she won four silvers and a bronze
Her last appearance was at the Athens games where she won a bronze medal

She has therefore won 37 Gold medals, 9 Silvers and 5 bronzes a grand total of 51 medals.

Now if that does notrank her among the greatest sports persons of all time then I don't know what will