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Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff

Herald Scotland

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Amongst athletes, Sir Chris Hoy is seen as a class apart The news that Sir Chris Hoy has been told by doctors he has only a few years to live is both sad and shocking but the outpouring of love for one of Scotland's greatest-ever sportspeople is unsurprising because even athletes saw him a a class apart.

When Sir Chris Hoy revealed his cancer diagnosis earlier this year, most people, I think, believed he’d get through it. Surely, a man who’s one...

20.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Alba Road Team's success reaches further than just the cycling world Alba Development Road Team has achieved significant success since 2022 and as their third season concludes, its becoming apparent its impact is reaching across Scottish sport.

When the Alba Development Road Team launched in early 2022, I looked on with a mixture of excitement, admiration and scepticism. It was a novel and...

20.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The 'Six Kings' is the latest example of sport selling its soul

Show me anyone who says they care about a sporting exhibition and I’ll show you a liar. Literally no one cares. Not the athletes, not the fans...

13.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Maybe Scottish tennis will be ok despite Andy Murray's retirement... It seemed the retirement of former world tennis number one, Andy Murray, earlier this year would signal the start of a fallow period for the elite side of the sport in this country but in timely fashion, two young Scottish players have stepped up at just the right moment to fill the void.

I can’t have been the only one that assumed Scottish tennis was going to fall off a cliff with the retirement of Andy Murray earlier this year. ...

06.10.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Athlos may just be the answer to track and field's problems Athlos, the new female-only athletics meet, which was founded by Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, debuted too huge fanfare earlier this week and it may just be what track and field needs to keep it in the spotlight post-olympics.

Track and field has a problem. Its problem is, for one week every four years, it’s the biggest show in town. Track and field ,as we witnessed...

29.09.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Is my cynicism about Glasgow 2026 misplaced? I hope so... The Commonwealth Games will head to Glasgow in 2026 but with a limited timescale and a reduced budget so can it possibly be a success?

I wish I could say, upon hearing the news this week that the 2026 Commonwealth Games will come to Glasgow, that I felt a wave of excitement within me....

22.09.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Bach still hoping to have the last word in IOC power battle with Coe There are few things pettier than two older privileged men behaving increasingly passively aggressively towards each other in the pursuit of sporting political power.

There are few things pettier than two older privileged men behaving increasingly passively aggressively towards each other in the pursuit of sporting...

15.09.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: 2024 has shown us that the end of tennis' Big Three is truly over At least one of tennis’ “Big Three” has been a constant in the sport for over two decades. But, in 2024, for the first time since 2002, none of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal nor Novak Djokovic have won a grand slam title, proving that a new era of men's tennis has begun.

Tennis’ “Big Three” has been such a constant in the sport for so long that any preceding era seems like a lifetime ago. We’ve known for...

08.09.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Failure to build Andy Murray Centre is a huge waste of his success The news this week that the Andy Murray centre near Dunblane will not be built may not be surprising, but it is hugely dispiriting. The failure to have a bricks-and-mortar legacy of Murray's hugely successful career is a monumental waste and throws away the chance of improving Scotland as a nation off the back of this country's greatest-ever sportsperson.

I still remember feeling a thrill of excitement when walking into the Susi Susanti Sports Hall in Indonesia; the former Olympic badminton champion...

01.09.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Could this be the greatest perk of being tennis' world number one? While it was shocking to find out this week that world ranked number one, Jannik Sinner, twice tested positive for a banned substance but his treatment, the like of which has not been afforded to many of his lower-ranked peers, has caused much controversy.

Being world number one in any sport brings plenty of perks.  Fame, money and privilege are all benefits that arrive with becoming the world’s...

25.08.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Why are so many people so deluded about their sporting potential? A recent You Gov survey has found that 27 percent of Brits believe they could make it into Team GB for the 2028 Olympics if they began training now. Why are quite so many people so incredibly deluded about their sporting ability, and about how difficult it is to become an Olympian?

Having spent 15 years of my life as an elite badminton player, I’m no stranger to random people claiming they could beat me. This, despite the...

18.08.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Paris 2024 has been a triumph- here's my takeaways from the Olympics Paris 2024 has been, for so many reasons, a hugely memorable Olympic Games. As the end of the Games approaches, here's what I'll take away from this summer's Olympics.

We have now arrived at the final day of Paris 2024. This summer’s Olympic Games, following the corruption-ridden Games in Rio in 2016 and the...

11.08.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Whether it's gold or silver for Imane Khelif, the controversy will continue

Of the 329 gold medals contested at Paris 2024, few have generated more interest than one which will be awarded today. This evening, Imane Khelif...

09.08.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Andy Murray's tennis career is finally over. So, what's next? Andy Murray has played professional tennis for almost twenty years but, following defeat at his last-ever tournament, the Paris Olympics, he's now hung up his racquet. Retirement is tricky to negotiate for most athletes so, where will Murray's next path lead him?

It was fitting that Andy Murray’s professional tennis career ended only after impossible victories, tears, jubilation and finally, acceptance. ...

04.08.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The BBC's reduced Olympic coverage is a huge blow to sports fans The value of sport being on free-to-air television channels cannot be under-estimated and so the BBC's reduced coverage of Paris 2024 is a huge blow to sports fans across the country. It's also hugely damaging to the future of sport.

I still vividly remember my first taste of the Olympic Games. It was 1992, I was nine years old, and what started out as a curiosity about the...

28.07.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The imminent end of Andy Murray's career is truly the end of an era

We’ve known for months that Andy Murray was edging closer to hitting his final tennis ball in anger. We are now just days away from this...

27.07.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The OIympic movement needs Paris 2024 to be a success The OIympic movement needs Paris 2024 to be a success and while this summer's Games has faced no shortage of challenges in the lead-up, the positives seems to outweigh the negatives. And, as always, once the sport starts, it's almost impossible not to be drawn into the drama of the Olympic Games.

Many factors contribute to an Olympic Games being a success – or, occasionally, being less than successful. There is, of course, much riding on...

27.07.2024 8

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Will Paris 2024 be clean? I hate to say it, but probably not For all the magic that surrounds the Olympics Games, every edition, and particularly Paris 2024, has a cloud hanging over it. That cloud is the doping cloud. Few believe every athlete who wins Olympic gold is clean and this summer, that's very much likely to be the case.

Maybe it’s that I’m getting cynical in my old age. I probably am. But for all the magic of the Olympics Games, I’m unable to think about...

21.07.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: A decade on, many fond memories remain of Glasgow 2014

We’re just days away from the tenth anniversary of the greatest fortnight in recent Scottish sporting memory. Ten years ago, the country, and...

14.07.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: 100 years on, Eric Liddell remains a Scottish great This week is the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell winning Olympic gold. His life story, and the tale behind his Olympic achievement, remains as compelling as ever.

So many of Scotland’s sporting greats are from the last few decades. Andy Murray. Chris Hoy. Josh Taylor. And then, if you go a wee bit further...

07.07.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: If you can't take being called s**t, get out of elite sport Gary Lineker was criticised for calling the England football team s**t, with England captain Harry Kane suggesting former players should be building the confidence on players up rather than knocking it. This, from Kane, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to be a good athlete.

Harry Kane and his compatriots have, I’m certain, been called far worse. Yet the outcry over the England football team being called “s**t” –...

30.06.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: For every Olympic winner, there'll be dozens of Olympic losers

The month-or-so before the Olympic Games is such a weird time for an athlete. Only the tiniest of improvements can be made in such a short space of...

23.06.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Scottish athletics' new star has timed her emergence to perfection Following in the footsteps of Scottish athletics' golden generation is no easy task but Megan Keith appears to have everything she needs to take over the mantle from the current crop of track and field superstars in this country.

The thing with a golden generation is how on earth do you follow it up? For years, the question in and around British tennis was “who’s the next...

16.06.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The answer to Stuart Hogg's problems is not returning to rugby Following Stuart Hogg's shock retirement last year, the fullback was embroiled in a number of issues in his private life. Now, he's reported to be returning to professional rugby but the way to fill a hole in one's life is not to return to professional sport.

Whenever the question is about solving a problem in one’s private life, the right answer is never, ever to make a rash decision to return to a...

09.06.2024 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Naomi Osaka is an individual that tennis desperately needs Naomi Osaka may gave exited the French Open in the second round but by using world number one, Iga Świątek so close, there were encouraging signs that the Japanese player is rediscovering her very best form. And, in a sport that's searching for superstars, it's exactly what tennis needs.

It’s ironic that, of all the players over the first week of the French Open, the biggest winner was someone who lost in the second round.  Naomi...

02.06.2024 30

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Rafa Nadal's final French Open campaign marks the end of an era Rafa Nadal's record of 14 tournament victories at the French Open is one of the greatest achievements by any single athlete. His final campaign at Roland Garros will mark the end of one of the most remarkable eras in global sport.

For quite some time, the vultures, in the shape of physiotherapists and medical professionals, have been circling above Rafa Nadal.  It seems...

26.05.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The Kerr - Ingebrigtsen rivalry is exactly what athletics needs Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigstsen are developing an intriguing rivalry both on and off the track, and it's exactly what athletics needs to create some interest.

The only thing better than a friendly rivalry is an entirely acrimonious rivalry. The chummy, respectful rivalry in which the likes of Roger Federer...

19.05.2024 30

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff:Is the 2026 Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow really a good thing? Within weeks, we'll know if the Commonwealth Games are heading back to Glasgow. I'm utterly split about whether or not another Scottish Games would be a good thing, however.

Potentially within days, but certainly within weeks, we’ll know for certain if the Commonwealth Games are imminently returning to Scottish shores....

12.05.2024 50

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Even 70 years on, it's a record that remains just as iconic as ever Even 70 years on, Roger Bannister's sub-four-minute mile run is a record that remains just as iconic as ever

The thing about sport is that it’s constantly moving on, constantly improving, constantly evolving. Records that were set in previous decades are...

05.05.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Chinese doping scandal raises fears that sport is as dirty as ever After the global anti-doping agency, WADA, freely accepted that the 23 positive doping tests returned by Chinese swimmers ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were as a result of contamination, significant fears have been raised about the true effectiveness of anti-doping.

I vividly remember finding out about the Russian doping scandal of 2014. Like most people, I was in utter disbelief about the revelations of the...

28.04.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Few athletes deserve a successful comeback more than Callum Hawkins

Elite sport, as every athlete knows all too well, is a brutal place. Show me an athlete who claims never to have faced an obstacle and I’ll show...

21.04.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Olympic prize money is the right move at the right time

Considering the astronomical sums of money involved in top-level sport these days, it’s somewhat quaint to consider that so many of the world’s...

14.04.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The Saudis are coming for tennis, the only question is when

Even the most short-sighted of observers saw this one coming. Saudi Arabia is going to take over tennis, the only question now being if it’ll be...

07.04.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Murray retiring due to injury would be the worst possible ending

There’s a few different notes on which to retire. There’s the perfect way; for an athlete to go out on their own terms, at a time of their...

31.03.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Recent weeks just the latest example that sport remains a boys' club

I’m as quick, or as culpable, as anyone for lauding the leaps forward women’s sport is making. And it is. Coverage, attendances, financial...

24.03.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Halep, suspensions and the erosion of trust in clean sport

When Simona Halep takes to the court in Miami in the coming days, it’s about more than just tennis, her presence is a reminder of the utter failure...

17.03.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Bolt's faster than Mbappe? Of course he is. Now, stop the snobbery

Media coverage of sport, as we all know, can sometimes head in directions few expected. And a Usain Bolt v Kylian Mbappe war of words was as...

10.03.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: We knew the end was near for Andy Murray, it's now been confirmed

We all knew it was coming, sooner or later. And it’s been confirmed this week, that it’s happening if not soon, then soon-ish. Andy Murray,...

03.03.2024 40

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Not being sexist really isn’t that hard. Can someone let Brendan Rodgers know?

There’s few things that make me want to punch someone in the face more than being called a “good girl”. Unless the person these two words are...

27.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: What makes someone Scottish? Whatever it is,the rules need tightened

What makes someone Scottish? Or any particular nationality, for that matter? For some, it’s where they were born, for others it’s where they...

25.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The Enhanced Games are an awful concept. But I'll still be watching

As someone who deplores doping in sport, I’d love to say that I have absolutely no interest in the Enhanced Games, which will take place later this...

18.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The richest athletes are all men, but money's not the whole problem

Almost everyone who’s been striving for greater equality within sport has, over recent years, been quick to laud the progress of women’s sport. ...

11.02.2024 10

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Sport is broken - it's been proven we're doping children

It’s been clear for some time that sport is broken. Well, maybe not sport as a whole but, certainly, elite sport is broken. From the endless...

04.02.2024 20

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: Yastremska's is a great underdog story, here's some of the very best

There’s nothing quite like an underdog story. Despite the respect and admiration garnered by the all-time greats of the sporting world and for the...

28.01.2024 6

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: The disconnect between elite and grassroots sport across Scotland

As a kid, I played badminton – the sport in which I ended up becoming an Olympian – in almost every corner of Scotland. My parents would trail...

21.01.2024 9

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: 2024 is the beginning of the end for two of tennis' greats

As the first tennis grand slam of the year begins, it’s impossible not to glance at the bigger picture. This tennis season is, almost certainly,...

14.01.2024 2

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: 30 years on, the Harding-Kerrigan scandal is as shocking as ever

There’s no doubt that a little bit of needle, a touch of controversy and a smattering of personal dislike is a welcome tonic within the sporting...

07.01.2024 5

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: My ones to watch in 2024

2023 has been quite a year for Scottish sport outwith the football bubble that so often dominates the headlines. Josh Kerr became world 1500m...

31.12.2023 8

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: My Scottish sportswomen of 2023

Scotland’s sportswomen have had a quite amazing twelve months.  Multiple world champions, a world record and one of the best-ever performances by...

24.12.2023 20

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

Susan Egelstaff: SPOTY serves to highlight the death of sports coverage on the BBC

It’s hardly a novel observation to suggest that BBC Sports Personality of the Year has lost its shine. In the 1980s, ’90s and even early 2000s,...

17.12.2023 7

Herald Scotland

Susan Egelstaff

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