In advance, it looked like the deepest quality contest for our Sports Person of the Year than has ever been the case. It was with Kellie Harrington, Leona Maguire and Rachael Blackmore as well as others worth winners in any other year.

And yet as the Awards dropped on Friday, Saturday and Sunday it became clear that one series of performances above the others had caught the imagination and secured a heaving trophy cabinet for Rachael Blackmore.

First up, in a year where Women dominated, it was the Irish Times Sports Woman of the Year that went the way of the Tipperary Native.

Then on Saturday, in a classy look back on a year to remember for the right reasons in sport at least, RTÉ also gave the nod to the first Women to be Champion Jockey at the Cheltenham Festival and to ride the winner of the Aintree Grand National.

And on Sunday, a unique hat trick when a popular vote saw here edge out the likes of Max Verstappen, Simone Biles, Novak Djokovic and others as the BBC World Sports Personality of the Year.

This could only be the most magical weekend of a sports person’s life, and a fulsome recognition of what she had achieved in a sport that is not on everyone’s agenda, or at least was not until her breakthrough.

The RTÉ review of the year gave the Coach of the Year to Dominic Casey for his work with Rowing Ireland; The Young Sportsperson of 2021 to Gavin Bazuno of the Republic of Ireland football team; and the team of the Year to Katie-George Dunleavy and Eve McCrystal for their Double Paralympic Gold.

The beauty of sport is that it keeps on coming. At the end of every year, we can look back on magical memories that will last down the generations, just as they have done since organised sport became an important part of our lives.

And then with those golden moments stored away, we go again, and again the following year.

There is always another mountain to climb, another champion to crown and another breakthrough star to celebrate.

There can be few expressions of the human spirit that are as powerful, as renewable and as important.

 

 

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