Lenny Boyle
Bradley Wiggins Becomes National Hero
01/08/2012
The question is no longer will Bradley Wiggins receive a knighthood. Will Bradley Wiggins win sports personality of the year? The answer to both of those queries is an unmistakable yes.
Andy Murray would have to win the 100m final to have any chance of supplanting Wiggo as the defining British sportsman of 2012. And currently he’s concentrating on tennis.
The only question left is this: Is Bradley Wiggins the coolest man in the country? The answer to that one also a resounding yes.
A summer that saw Wiggins become the first ever British rider to win the Tour De France could have ended in that glittering moment on the Champs-Élysées. It still would have been the best ever year for a Brit cyclist.
But that unprecedented achievement was followed by yet another in the unprecedented category. Wiggo became the first human being to win the Tour de France and follow up that titanic feat with Olympic Gold in the same year.
And in the process become the greatest - and most decorated, with seven medals - British Olympian ever. Not bad, Wiggo. Seriously. Not bad.
But it wasn’t just the achievements that enshrined Wiggo forever as a national hero. It was the manner of his celebration. From his BBC interview in which he declared, 'I know how the Beatles felt now' , to his late night tweets keeping us up to date with his drunken celebrations. Never has a drink been more thoroughly deserved.
‘Getting wasted at at StPauls’ he tweeted around 1 AM on the night all his dreams came true; in culmination of the greatest British cycling year ever. The two ‘ats’ in that sentence back up his claims of having thoroughly enjoyed himself. He hadn’t had a night out in nine months. He said he would celebrate with vodka tonics, and obviously did.
As to his future earnings, estimates have ranged up to £30 million in sponsorship deals and branding opportunities. No one can begrudge him making hay will he can.
And as far as those marketing men and brand managers are concerned, they’ll have an easy job on their hands. Not since Elvis has a modern icon been recognisable only from his sideburns.
Indeed national newspapers had stick on sideburns on front pages on Wiggo’s day of glory. For those not capable, or simply without the time to muster their own.
No tears for Wiggins on the ludicrous thrones on which his gold medal was presented to him. Thrones so apt for a future peer of the realm. No tears. He’s too cool for that.
What a year. It’s Wiggo’s World. We’re just living in it.
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