How a decade’s tales of the unexpected added to sport’s storybook endings

From Tiger’s comeback at Augusta to the Foxes’ title miracle, Lawrence Ostlere recalls how the drama of the past decade copperfastened sport’s capacity for pure escapism

Moments of ecstacy: (clockwise from centre) Tiger Woods, Leicester City, Jess Ennis, Jos Buttler and Andy Murray (Getty)

There are certain sports mega-events which shaped the past 10 years, each one a heavy footprint in history. This was a decade of discovery, when the Fifa World Cup was staged in Africa, the Olympic Games finally returned to London and the Rugby World Cup arrived in Asia, to the bemusement of most locals. Yet despite these ever more spectacular settings, it is a series of unscripted moments which stick in the memory.

When we look back we are drawn to glimpses in time. The final hour at Medinah Country Club, as the evening light faded and a Ryder Cup miracle unravelled. Forty-six golden minutes when triangles of light twinkled over Hackney, and Mo Farah, Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford delivered the night of their lives all at once. The eternal pause at Lord’s as Jason Roy ran and stooped and picked and threw, and Jos Buttler knocked off the bails, and delirium ensued. If this decade taught us anything about sport, it is that however lavish the stage, those small but seismic instants of human drama are the parts that truly last.

The sporting landscape has changed quicker than ever before. Sport is a product of society and in the decade of the smartphone, of instant gratification at our fingertips, it has tried to cater for new expectations, with mixed results. Things happen faster now. You see it in cricket’s shrinking formats, in athletics’ streamlined Diamond League, even in snooker, a game once played with whisky and a cigarette now being rushed to the tick of a timer. Technology has found solutions, like Hawk-Eye’s successful integration in tennis, but it has met problems too: in football VAR has unearthed stray offside armpits and imperceptible handballs, sins we never knew existed. And when Eliud Kipchoge broke through the two-hour marathon barrier, he did it with an extra bounce in his Nike shoes; scientific advances have brought moral dilemmas as well as practical ones.

But despite these shifts, sport remains at its simplest somewhere to bind people together in moments of awe, joy, bewilderment, fury and heart-racing tension. It still serves its primary purpose as a world of escapism, somewhere to be immersed in the present, a place to leave your baggage at the door. It can still take you on a ride you never knew was possible, like Leicester City’s Premier League triumph, and at the same time write out the most cliche of storybook endings, like Alastair Cook’s final century at The Oval.

The fundamental pillar of it all is brilliant sportspeople, and they have been as astonishing as any decade gone before. Roger Federer was supposed to be a fading force 10 years ago. Serena Williams had peaked. Tiger Woods was just a memory on YouTube. That they have defied all logic to keep winning major titles is extraordinary; that they have done it in the face of generational talents like Novak Djokovic and Rory McIlroy is all the more impressive. They are among those athletes who have not just achieved success but redefined the boundaries of sport and its possibilities. Simone Biles is another, taking the human body into new spheres of gymnastic invention, literally forcing the rules to be changed on her behalf. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have recalculated football’s statistical norms, making the old striker’s target of a goal every other game look positively work-shy.

Simone Biles has taken the human body into new spheres of gymnastic invention (AFP/Getty)

From a British perspective, it was arguably the most successful decade in history: six yellow jerseys, five F1 world titles by one supremely talented driver, three Ashes series, two Open Championships and one Green Jacket, and two Champions Leagues; third at the London Olympics and second in Rio, finally a men’s Wimbledon champion after 77 years, a heavyweight boxing world champion, men’s and women’s Cricket World Cup triumphs and a women’s Rugby World Cup too. Women’s sport in particular can celebrate breaking new ground; the 2017 Cricket World Cup was a revelation, captivating old and new fans alike.

And one man stands tall from that list. It’s not only that Andy Murray scratched such a long-held itch in the British subconscious. It’s not just that he became US Open champion, Olympic gold medallist and clinched Britain’s first Davis Cup since 1936 with one of the greatest pressure points you’re ever likely to see. It’s that at first he failed miserably. He began the decade weeping at the Rod Laver Arena, having been well beaten by Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, and he would lose there four more times, each more agonising than the last. But it was his stubborn fortitude which came to embody a kind of nebulous modern British spirit – not so much stiff upper lip as quivering bottom lip, unashamed and undiminished. It is easy to forget that Murray was a figure of fun in some quarters but his achievements, especially his two Wimbledon titles, leave room for nothing but admiration. It seems appropriate that his decade should end recovering from major knee surgery as someone who made a career out of refusing to be beaten.

Where do the 2010s leave sport? Is it in a better place? In many ways it is bound in more controversy than ever. The decade began with the announcement of Qatar as the 2022 Fifa World Cup host and it closed with a world heavyweight fight in Saudi Arabia. Russia enters 2020 facing suspension from major events like the Olympic Games. Closer to home, some of Britain’s greatest sportsmen and women are tainted by association, whether that be to a cycling team found to have crossed “ethical boundaries” or an athletics coach guilty of doping violations.

Injustice seeps through sport’s glossy veneers. Caster Semenya became the innocent victim of a debate on athlete categorisation which is only just beginning, and has no fair resolution in sight. Colin Kaepernick has sacrificed much of his NFL career as a platform for peaceful protest. Sport can never be disentangled from the world which creates it, it does not exist in a vacuum, and it feels more important than ever to approach some of its more seductive charms with healthy scepticism.

So perhaps the only relief is that for all sport’s invisible forces – some benevolent, some nefarious – and for all its grand shows and new lands claimed, this decade was a reminder that the power to create memories and make sport special ultimately rests in the hands of extraordinary, ordinary people.