HAMBURG (dpa) – It seems appropriate that the letter “M” dominated the official first year of the new millennium in sport.
Michael Johnson retired from athletics, Michael Schumacher won back-to-back Formula One titles and Michael Jordan made another comeback to NBA action, at the Washington Wizards.
Maurice Greene completed a 100 metres world title hat-trick while Marion Jones suffered a surprise defeat in the same event in the women’s field.
Adam Malysz made skijump history for Poland with a four hill crown and a title at the world championships in Lahti, where Mika Myllyla led six Finnish cross country skiers who were caught doping.
Bayern Munich won a fourth European Champions League title in Milan while Real Madrid paid a world record fee for French star Zinedine Zidane.
Moscow was the site where Beijing won the 2008 Summer Olympics and Juan Antonio Samaranch gave way for Jacques Rogge as International Olympic Committee president after 21 years on the top sports job.
It was on a Monday that Goran Ivanisevic capped a stunning wildcard appearance with his first career Wimbledon title while The Masters was Tiger Woods’ only win at the majors in 2001.
Of course there was more to the pre-Olympic year than “M” – after all, the letter doesn’t appear in the name of Jaden Gil, the son of Steffi Graf and her husband, Andre Agassi.
Lance Armstrong of the U.S. won a third straight Tour de France title and Aussie Ian Thorpe six gold medals at the swimming world championships.
The athletics worlds in Edmonton, Alberta, marked the biggest sports event of the year with 1,800 athletes from 200 countries but produced no truly outstanding results in the absence of the 200m and 400m superstar Michael Johnson, who retired.
That was one of the reasons why the case of Olga Yegorova got so much attention. The Russian was the first ever track and field athlete to fail a test for the blood doping substance EPO but was allowed to run (and win the 5,000m gold) because the test method used at the Paris meet was not validated.
“I don’t consider myself guilty. Should I have finished second or third just to please the crowd?” she snapped after being met with jeers and then silence by the crowd.
There was also some stunned silence in the normally only half-full Commonwealth stadium when Jones was upstaged by Zhanna Pintusevich in the 100m dash.
Jones went on to win 100m and relay gold, but was not fully satisfied: “I came here to win three golds.”
Greene led an American sweep for his third 100m title but injured himself and was unable to compete in further events.
German Lars Riedel won a fifth discus crown, Cuba’s Ivan Pedroso a fourth straight long jump title while Haile Gebrselassie was denied a fifth straight 10,000m title.
Thorpe, meanwhile, was the darling of the swimming world in Fukuoka, Japan, with a record six golds and four world records as Australia dominated with a dozen golds.
“I am more than pleased with how I swam,” said the teenager, whose only moment of disappointment was a fourth-place finish in his other race, the 100m freestyle.
Michael Schumacher won back-to-back F1 world championship titles for his Ferrari team in convincing style, clinching his fourth career title ahead of McLaren’s David Coulthard.
The Williams team with the other Schumacher brother Ralf and Pablo Montoya emerged as a new challenger, while ex-champion Mika Hakkinen and Jean Alesi retired.
Schumacher has no such plans: “I look forward to continuing racing. I clearly enjoy myself.”
In football, Manchester United won another Premier League title and so did Real Madrid in the Primera Division. Roma followed crosstown rivals Lazio as Serie A title holders.
Liverpool re-emerged with a total five cup wins – most notably the UEFA Cup in a 5-4 thriller with Spain’s Alaves.
Munich won their fourth Champions League crown in a penalty shootout with Valencia and the Bundesliga title in even more dramatic fashion three days later – through an injury time free kick from Patrik Andersson while Schalke were already (prematurely) celebrating the championship.
France confirmed their reputation as the world’s best national team by adding the Confederations Cup crown to their world and European titles.
The Netherlands, by contrast, were the most prominent victims of a gruelling qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup which also saw giants Brazil and Germany (5-1 losers to England) struggle as never before.
But both then had the luck of the draw while Argentina and England were drawn into a “group of death” which also features Nigeria and Sweden.
The continental body UEFA was slammed for allowing Champions League play on the day of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the world governing body FIFA was the sports federation most affected by the bankruptcy of marketing company ISL.
The tennis world saw the completion of Jennifer Capriati’s comeback with Australian and French Open titles while Venus Williams won back-to-back Wimbledon and U.S. Open crowns.
Agassi won again at the French Open but crashed out in dramatic fashion at the French Open under the yes of former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
Gustavo Kuerten won a third Roland Garros title, Ivanisevic beat Pat Rafter for his miracle Wimbledon glory and Lleyton Hewitt first won the U.S. Open and then became the youngest ever World number 1 at age 20.
But his dreams were not completely fulfilled as Australia were ambushed by France in the Davis Cup final.
Things looked grimmer for Austrian ski hero Hermann Maier, who failed to pick up a gold at his home world championships in St. Anton and is now sidelined indefinitely after fracturing his foot in a motorcycle crash.
There was even worse news on the ski circuit as French super-g world champion Regine Cavagnoud died of injuries sustained in a training collision with a German coach in November. Swiss Silvano Beltrametti will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life after crashing at a December race.
In American sports, the Arizona Diamondbacks surprised the three- times holders New York Yankees for their Major League Baseball crown, the L.A. Lakers won a second straight NBA title, the Baltimore Ravens the Super Bowl and the Colorado Avalanche the Stanley Cup.
In boxing, Lennox Lewis first lost and then regained the world heavyweight crown and now is expected to meet Mike Tyson in 2002 – the year dominated by the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the football World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
