2013 will be remembered as the year, the dark side of sport reared its ugly head, particularly right at the start with two of its biggest stars embroiled in crime and controversy.
However, there were plenty of wonderful success stories on and off the field as well as some very emotional farewells.
But firstly, to the "bad" sports stories of 2013 and these were almost forgotten given how early they occurred in the year but were pretty significant at the time.
The year started off with a bang when (then) 7-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong confessed that he took performance enhancing drugs en route to the mayo jour in Paris all those years ago. In the most bizarre and questionable - yet in hindsight fitting manner, the Texan made his confession public via a two-part interview with television diva, Oprah Winfrey.
The reaction in the days after was naturally massive with the most obvious, the stripping of all of Armstrong's Tour de France titles, with the name of the winner left blank, harking to an era which cycling would much rather forget. Surprisingly, there has been little word on any legal action against Armstrong during those times he lied about his drug usage.
If that wasn't enough, in February, South Africa's Blade Runner and Olympic/Paralympic star, Oscar Pistorius was arrested and charged for murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp in their home in Johannesburg. Pistorius claimed to have shot his girlfriend in the toilet by accident - a trial next March will determine if this is really the end of the road for a man who was just about to embark on a highly lucrative athletic career despite having his lower legs amputated at a young age.
Finally, there was the drug controversy which hit the Jamaican athletics programme like a bad smell. Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and Veronica Campbell-Brown were amongst the five Jamaican athletes who tested positive in the summer, shocking the small Caribbean nation which had just emerged as a track and field superpower on the crest of Usain Bolt's success.
Bolt himself, remains clean but suffered in the wake of the drug controversy to hit his fellow countrymen and women. He continued his domination of the track but admitted that 2013 wasn't his best year - not surprising given events off the track.
To some real sport and a look back at some brighter moments on the field.
The weirdest sporting moment of the year had to be when the lights went out for nearly half an hour during Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans. The power outage happened halfway through the 2nd half in the middle of a San Francisco 49ers drive and interrupted play for 34 minutes. John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens led brother, Jim Harbaugh's 49ers 28-6 at the time of the power outage, but when play resumed, it was younger brother, Jim's side who took the initiative, finishing the 3rd quarter only 28-23 down.
Baltimore and John Harbaugh would have been outraged had the 49ers won - they clearly would have had some assistance from the power outage. Alas they held on, to win 34-31 in one of the most memorable and bizzare Super Bowls in history.
Britain had another memorable year of sport - even if it did end with the Ashes ending up in the hands of their arch enemy from down under.
Kenyan born Chris Froome made it two wins to British riders in a row in the Tour de France - the 100th edition in fact, dominating all the way to Paris as Team Sky made it two from two in two years, despite the best efforts of rising Colombian star, Nairo Quintana and Spanish riders, Joachim Rodriguez and Alberto Contador.
On a more personal note, my good buddy, Jack Bauer, finally cycled in his first ever Tour de France - he was doing a respectable time as a domestique only for him to crash out just two days out from the finish (and with a face quite badly scratched and cut, although fortunately, those scars healed by the time he got to Scotty Donaldson's wedding!)
And then there was Andy Murray.
Oh Andy, Andy, Andy.
Britain had waited for another homegrown winner at Wimbledon since 1936 and the years of frustration that came with the waiting were just released along with the joy that memorable sunny July afternoon in SW1 as Andy Murray finally leapt out of Fred Perry's shadow and crushed Serbian ace Novak Djokovic in 3 sets.
It was painful at times but it was joyous at the end and worth the wait.
For me though, the most saccharine sporting moment of the year had to be the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series only a year after finishing bottom of their division and only 6 months after the devastating Boston Marathon bombing that killed 3 people and maimed many others. If there was evidence that you can be driven by tragedy to success, this was it, as new coach, John Farrell and the likes of Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Jack Lester wore the #BostonStrong logo on their sleeves and won game after game to win the division, then the championship and finally the World Series. The perfect balm for a wounded city.
And then there was the passing of another man who had immense influence on sport - Nelson Mandela, the man who used sport to rebuild and reunite a nation, just before the close of the year.
No doubt his presence wearing the Springboks jersey at Ellis Park - the colours of a team that was very much a white man's game in the Republic before and a symbol of apartheid - inspired the Boks to Rugby World Cup victory but also filled the divide between blacks and whites in the newly reformed Republic and the effect while slow is very much evident today. The Boks are now definitely a team backed by all South Africa, not just by one race, and cricket and football in South Africa have also seen the destruction of racial walls.
RIP Madiba.
What a 2013. Let's hope 2014 with the Commonwealth Games, Winter Olympic Games and of course, the World Cup Finals can deliver more on the field and less off it.
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