Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

Swimmingly inspirational

 

By Hunt Archbold

Hard to believe that after honoring baseball great Hank Aaron and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank the last two years in this space, it’s time to honor our third Hunt’s Grunts Sports Personality of the Year. And yet, the big blue marble keeps on spinning, doesn’t it? What a sports year—in fact, what a sports decade it’s been.

What will we remember most about it? Well, locally, it’d be the dramatic rise and fall of the former face of the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick, whose journey from penthouse to doghouse to big house was one of the decade’s biggest national scandals. But  Vick certainly wasn't alone in having his closets closely inspected for skeletons.

Tiger Woods and his adulterous affairs have driven his public image into the deep rough of late, but long before him, there were many others caught up in the whirlwind of deceit. Track and field superstar Marion Jones won five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics to place herself as the planet’s dominant female athlete as the new century began. But by decade’s end, she was an ex-convict whose medals were stripped after she was found guilty of perjury concerning her doping allegations.

Many other athletes were brought down for performance-enhancing drug revelations, as well. From Barry Bonds to Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens to Alex Rodriguez, Tim Montgomery to Shawne Merriman, it was a steroid-filled decade, no doubt about it. Others cheated, too: Soccer match-fixing scandals were fixtures from Brazil to South Africa to China and all across Europe. And of course there was the judging chaos at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics figure-skating competition, which resulted in a new scoring system.

NBA referee Tim Donaghy may not have cheated, but his entanglement in gambling certainly left a black eye on the sport. Like many, he could not resist temptation. The allure to be bigger and faster, to hit more home runs or have more mistresses damaged so, so many careers. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Rick Pitino and Martin Brodeur are just a few who were brought down a few notches in their quest to fulfill their sexual appetites. But none of them were taken out completely, as sadly was the case this summer with Steve McNair.

So much happened in sports this decade. Where is Steve Bartman today? What did Italy’s Marco Materazzi really say to cause France’s Zinedine Zidane to head-butt him in the waning minutes of the 2006 World Cup final? There was Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl XXXVIII wardrobe malfunction; the Malice in the Palace, as members of the Indiana Pacers charged into the stands to fight fans in 2004; Pedro Martinez of the Red Sox tossing 72-year-old Yankee coach Don Zimmer to the ground the year before; a deranged father-son combo storming the field to attack a Kansas City first base coach as a stunned crowd watched the year before that; tennis star Serena Williams verbally threatening a lineswoman during the semifinals of this year’s U.S. Open; and on and on and on.

And then there were those who didn’t go on. Who can forget the tragic death of NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Sr. at the 2001 Daytona 500? Others who passed well before their time include baseball’s Darryl Kile and Nick Adenhart, as well as football’s Chris Henry, Sean Taylor and Korey Stringer, and of course Pat Tillman.

And like the years and decades before, it was a period of great achievements by teams and individuals alike. Bryant, Woods, Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher, Albert Pujols, Annika Sorenstam, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady, Usain Bolt and Jimmie Johnson are just a few who had their moments in the sun this decade. Which leads us to one special person who nearly never even saw the light of day: Savannah Duke, our 2009 Sports Personality of the Year.

Nine-year-old Savannah of Spartanburg, S.C., came into this world less than a year after the decade began, and within two weeks was undergoing chemotherapy as she developed cancer in the womb. She was born without a left leg, and at 13 months, she underwent a very risky and complicated surgery to remove a suspected tumor (it turned out to be a cyst) that was touching her spine. I’m a close friend of Savannah’s aunt, and the memories of praying and waiting and more praying with the Duke family that emotional weekend at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will forever be etched in my memory.

The 12-hour surgery was a success, and today Savannah is an active first-grader who plays piano, sings in the church choir and enjoys art. She also loves to swim in the pool, joined a city league and is taking lessons to get faster. No, she’ll never be an Olympic champion, but she is a winner in so many ways for the bravery this precious little girl has displayed in handling her difficult situation.

Savannah hops around on her one leg (she doesn’t use her crutches as much as she should), and there are some young children who tease her, as kids will do. Sure, she has her moments of frustration, but she’s not a complainer; she’s a fighter who inspires almost all who come in contact with her. She simply stares down the obstacles that life places in front of her and moves forward to overcome them.

And for providing such inspiration, I say, well done, Savannah Duke. Well done, indeed.

Happy times … and ciao-chow until the next decade, sports fans! SP