Opinion: The 2004 sporting year: hall of fame or shame?

Hall of Fame

Country: China - second in the medal rankings in Athens, China is not only the country to fear in its traditional sports, but now produces world-class tennis players, track athletes and swimmers. So keen are they to showcase them that a warning has been given by the IOC president to slow down preparations, for fear of the high cost of maintaining stadia ready many months too early!

Team: European Ryder Cup team - which, in thrashing the older, more experienced, wealthier US team, truly epitomised what playing in a team means. In this golf event, as with any team sport, the leadership of a good captain who understood partnerships, chemistry within the team and how to deploy young talent, makes the difference between one group of gifted athletes and another. The underdogs beat the favourites, on home soil, in record style.

Individual: Michael Phelps (swimming) - I read that if Phelps were a country, he would have finished higher in the medals table than Brazil, Canada, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden. He swam 17 races in seven days, winning six gold and two bronze medals. He and his fellow water boys and girls ensured that swimming was even more popular in Greece than in Sydney, and will be a sell-out in Beijing.

Event: Athens Olympic Games - the worry and scepticism were forgotten as day after day, we had to force ourselves to go to bed at night. It would be a shame if the Games did not do for Greece what the Lord of the Rings movies did for New Zealand.

Hall of Shame

Country: Spain - Football was overshadowed by racist chanting from the home fans aimed at England's black players, as well as the behaviour of some of those on the field in England's 1-0 defeat to Spain.

Team: More than being in the 2004 Hall of Shame, the brawl at the Pacers-Pistons NBA game belongs in the Worst Sporting Moments in History. Players and fans exchanged punches in the stands near the end of a game in an all-time low point in basketball history. The NBA is not unfamiliar with (or averse to) controversy; however, it cannot excuse hostility between athletes and spectators. Embarrassing at best, but at its most extreme, this is evidence that the basketball player-fan dynamic has changed for the worse.

Individual(s): Drug cheats - For the first time, blood tests (previously limited to endurance sports) were mandatory across the board. Statistically speaking, Athens Olympics was twice as bad as previous worst games for doping offences. The message is clear - doping is cheating and drugs will not be tolerated.

Event: The China Super League - indeed, Chinese football is in crisis. Lacklustre performances, zero commercial successes, riddled with scandal, including allegations of match-fixing, boycotts and drug-use and a national team coach who failed to get the team to qualify for the next World Cup. Seven of the 12 Super League teams have challenged the CFA to reform itself, claiming a lack of transparency and acute corruption.

But if I had to pick one, historic moment that defines the 2004 sporting year, it would have to go to the Boston Red Sox. Joking aside about only US teams being able to play in a 'World' series, the story of this team (and its fans) captured the attention of every sports fan on the planet with access to a television, newspaper or the internet. Only sport can do that.