From Mo Farah's teacher to the policeman who got Rory McIlroy to the tee on time, we salute 2012's unsung sporting heroes
Alan Watkinson
Former PE teacher turned mentor, coach, confidant and best man to Mo Farah. Among the early lessons Watkinson taught 11-year-old Mo at Feltham community college was how to focus – a weakness he spotted while giving his class a strict safety lesson about javelin throwing. "I looked up and there was Mo, hanging from the goalposts."
Andre Coggins
The spirit of the Games was captured in big, expensive set-piece moments – but spontaneous ones, too. Coggins produced the summer's most infectious grin after Usain Bolt fist-bumped him pre-race, a clip that went viral. The teenage Gamesmaker told the Haringey Advertiser how Bolt had told him: "You're the one." "I felt weak at the knees. I just couldn't believe it."
Andrew Deaner
Fabrice Muamba's survival in March involved a team of medics – but Andrew Deaner, the cardiologist who was only at the game after his brother found a spare ticket, was a pivotal figure. In the days that followed the 78-minute battle to restart Muamba's heart, Deaner recalled their first exchange after his patient regained consciousness. "I whispered into his ear: 'What's your name?' After he told me I said: 'I understand you're a very good footballer.' And he replied: 'I try.'"
Andy Banks
Tom Daley's first dive in his individual event was as close as he gets to a belly flop. But there was a good reason. Coach Andy Banks reacted to the flash photography that put Daley off and complained quickly to the referee. GB's poster boy had another go, and won bronze.
Antonin Panenka
England's Euro 2012 felt pre-scripted: the same old soul-searching slog to a bungled shootout. Italy knew it too, and approached the quarter-final penalties with relaxed relish, sure that England would better any gaffe. The swagger was defined by Andrea Pirlo's slow‑motion chip, copied from the pioneer Antonin Panenka – whose 1976 clipped kick won the championship for Czechoslovakia and inspired a generation of showboaters. It looks awful when it goes wrong. Against England, of course, it was perfect.
Bernd Bönte
After Derek Chisora was beaten by Vitali Klitschko in February, Klitschko's manager, Bernd Bönte, told the post-bout press conference that Chisora had, at least, "really tried" – an arch reference to David Haye's 2011 defeat to Vitali's brother, Wladimir, which Haye blamed on a painful toe. When Haye, standing at the back of the press conference, heckled, Bönte shouted back: "Chisora showed heart, contrary to you. You showed your toe." Chisora added: "How's your toe? How's your toe?" The Haye v Chisora brawl that followed should have been pay-per-view.
Carl Lewis
Before the summer, surprise Team GB gold medallist long-jumper Greg Rutherford was known as an injury-prone nearly man, who spent a lot of time in front of YouTube. It was time well spent. "There's quite a lot of footage of Carl Lewis," he told the press before the Games. "There are things I believe I can take from what he did to improve my technique. It seems to be helping."
Carol Hoy
Chris Hoy's sixth gold summed up Team GB's cycling dominance. Carol Hoy's fraught mid-race mix of pride, enthusiasm and terror summed up what it is to be an Olympian's mother. As did …
Cathy Brownlee
Gave birth to 66% of the men's triathlon medallists. Cathy, who took Alistair and Jonny swimming from the age of four, said she and their dad, Keith, remain overwhelmed. "We have to pinch ourselves every time we see them on television. We think: 'That can't possibly be them.' They're just our boys, really."
Chad Le Clos
The Bert Le Clos story could never have happened without "beautiful boy" Chad beating Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly. Chad's feat was vastly overshadowed by dad Bert's post-race interview, one of the moments of the Games. Bert and Clare Balding were reunited at the Sports Personality awards. "What show, what a show BBC, well done. I have to thank you for making me famous – 30 years and 40 kilos too late!"
Charly Rexach
Lionel Messi's 2012 goals haul of 91 came 12 years to the month after his Barcelona career began with a contract scrawled on a napkin by the club's sporting director Charly Rexach. Rexach, with Leo and his dad in a restaurant, agreed to cover the 13-year-old's costly treatment for a growth hormone deficiency if he agreed to leave Argentina for Barça's academy. "I snapped him up there and then," Rexach remembered. "He signed the serviette."
Colin Hood
In 2005, Paralympic swimming ace Sarah Storey had a choice. A persistent ear infection and an interest in cycling had made her wonder about a dramatic career change. She asked her swimming coach, Colin Hood, to decide for her. "If you were my daughter," he told her, "I would have to tell you to try something new. You've won everything in swimming. What more could you do?"
Cricket's 'deep throat'
England's year-closing series win in India came after a summer of turmoil. When an unnamed South African source cunningly leaked Kevin Pietersen's "doos" texts to the press, the damage was done – or so it seemed. In fact, the wound that opened up provoked the type of sustained soul-searching, air clearing and re-energising that can only lead to a stronger, tighter unit. England, with KP "reintegrated", sparkled, united, in Nagpur.
Daniel Ricciardo
Behind Sebastian Vettel's F1 title win was Daniel Ricciardo's decision to break hard in front of him on the 12th lap in Abu Dhabi. Vettel, who started from the pits, swerved into a marker-board, crippling his already-damaged front wing, leading to a pit stop that put him on softer tyres. With that advantage, and aided by two safety cars, he cut through the field to finish third – setting up the chance to secure the title in dramatic style in Brazil three weeks later.
Darren Cahill
Two months after Sue Barker made him cry at Wimbledon, Andy Murray took the US Open – his first grand slam, and the first for a British male in 76 years. Murray's resurgence was credited to his new coach Ivan Lendl, a pairing suggested by Murray's Australian coach Darren Cahill. It was love at first sight. "It was obvious," Murray said. "This was the guy I wanted to work with."
David Walsh
It was the US Anti-Doping Agency that finally, officially nailed Lance Armstrong. But it was the Sunday Times journalist David Walsh who led the chase. His 13-year pursuit of the man who dubbed him a "little fucking troll" proved the value of dogged, undaunted investigative journalism.
The Duckitts
Key to London's opening ceremony's second-biggest surprise was the trusting nature of the families of the seven youngsters who lit the cauldron. Among those totally taken in by the cover stories were the Duckitts – so convinced by son Jordan's made-up reasons to stay at home that they went on holiday without him and missed the whole thing. "They watched it in a bar in Cyprus. It must have been a shock for them."
Flint's drinkers
Jade "Headhunter" Jones's dramatic taekwondo gold, Britain's first, nearly never happened. In 2010 she ran out of money to go to the Junior Youth Olympic qualifiers, so the people of her home town, Flint in Wales, had a whip‑round. "Without them I probably wouldn't be at the Olympics," she told the BBC. "I needed £1,600 and the pubs and businesses of the town raised it all."
Freddy Nielsen
Jonathan Marray beat Andy Murray to become the first British man to win at Wimbledon this summer, taking the men's doubles and producing one of the year's big pre-Olympic patriotic feelgood moments. Also playing a fairly key part, lost in the headlines, was Danish partner Freddy Nielsen. Nielsen said he felt relaxed about being overshadowed and swept along in the fervour, and called Marray "one of the most British Brits I've ever known … his accent, his demeanour, his cups of tea, everything".
Gary Connery
London's signature opening ceremony moment owed everything to Gary Connery's willingness to throw himself out of a helicopter dressed in a frock watched by a billion people. The Queen's stunt double said he had one regret. "'I wanted to keep the dress, but I wasn't allowed." Among the other key players in the skit was Monty the corgi, who performed a tummy-roll. He died in September.
Garry Grey
Chelsea's Champions League win produced one enduring image, thanks to 2012's unabashed modern-football-definer. John Terry famously played no part in the win, but assumed a full part in the trophy collection, having slipped into his full Chelsea kit for the occasion. It resulted in one of the year's big online Photoshop memes – JT in full kit taking credit for triumphs including Usain Bolt's 100m gold, Felix Baumgartner's space dive and the Chelsea flower show. None of it would have possible without the professionalism and dedication of Garry Grey, Chelsea's senior kit man.
George Hickinson
Hickinson, a former sergeant major in the Royal Dragoon Guards, was asked by his friend Stuart Lancaster to address the England squad on the eve of their extraordinary win over the All Blacks. He told them to mirror the attitude of serving soldiers, including his son, who steeled themselves to constant danger. Players praised his speech, while Hickinson, diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000, told the Telegraph he hoped the "tremendous buzz" of the encounter would help him live long enough to see the birth of his second grandchild. The baby was born the night before he died.
George Michael
After the grim 2008 Beckham-in-a-bus handover in Beijing, Britain's public had feared the worst for 2012's opening ceremony, only to be proved wrong. As it turned out, the worst arrived two weeks later: 24.5 million watched on TV as Kate Moss sashayed out of a lorry and Fat Boy Slim rose out of an octopus. But the fact that the closing ceremony did not spoil the overall feelgood factor was down to one man – George Michael drawing the ire away from Locog by trying out his new material.
Glenda Trott
In 2000 Glenda Trott decided to try cycling to lose weight. "My doctor told me to try swimming but I couldn't face having people looking at me. My husband bought me a bike instead and one day we went down to the track." She took daughter Laura with her. The result: seven stone lost for mum; two gold medals for daughter 12 years later.
Graham Bowen
The Welsh grand slam win in March, a third in eight seasons, was led by coach Warren Gatland, the focus for high praise. Gatland would not have been in the job but for his former chief executive at Waikato Rugby Union, Graham Bowen, deciding to nod the move through in 2007 despite fearing the impact his loss could have. "It was just too good a chance. He had to go."
Jade Bailey
2012's torch relay ended on the Thames in a speedboat driven by David Beckham. The key role, though, was played by the 16-year-old Arsenal footballer Jade Bailey, the final torchbearer before the flame reached the park. She revealed Becks had driven the boat for real at times, but wasn't allowed to park it.
Jean Tomlin
Everyone loved the Gamesmakers. Whittled down from 240,000 applicants by HR director Jean Tomlin into a 70,000‑strong army of foam-finger wearing mood-lifters, they've since been hailed by government ministers as the answer to all problems. The one letdown: the Games Maker Choir failed to reach Christmas No1 – charting at No70.
Jenny Archer
After turning up at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta and finding "about five people in the crowd", David Weir nearly packed it all in. "I fell out of love with the sport. I just didn't want to do it any more." But watching Tanni Grey‑Thompson win four golds in Sydney in 2000 inspired him to get in touch with Jenny Archer, a coach he had known since the age of eight, whose CV included a spell training Wimbledon's Crazy Gang. "Working with Wimbledon taught me to be mean and tough," she told the Mirror. "They called me a hard taskmaster. They called me Hitler. They called me everything under the sun. But they achieved what they wanted. So when Dave came to me and asked if I would take him on, I was ready. He was talented but he needed someone to kick his arse. Look at him now."
Jimmy Vasser
Any extra motivation Alex Zanardi needed to secure paracycling gold, 11 years after losing both legs in a crash in Germany, came pre-race from his former team‑mate turned US motor racing impresario Vasser. Vasser cut a deal with him: promising to help him take part in 2013's Indy 500 if he won gold in London. "If he decides to do it now you better get on board or get out of the way. I know better than to bet against Zanardi."
Joey Barton
2012 was another full year for Joey. His most eye-catching moment came in May as Manchester City surged to the Premier League title by beating QPR – a feat they could not have achieved but for Barton's second-half red card tantrum. His flailing elbow, knee to the buttocks and missed headbutt ensemble meant referee Mike Dean had to add on exactly enough time for Sergio Agüero's decisive, 94th-minute winner.
Jonas Hogh-Christensen
Hogh-Christensen made Ben Ainslie angry, "and you don't want to make me angry". Ainslie said the Dane ganged up on him with the Dutchman Pieter-Jan Postma, providing an extra shot of sailing adrenalin. "I'm seriously unhappy. Maybe their time will come." The result: a riled Ainslie became the most decorated Olympic sailor in history, then received a knighthood.
Kilburn art teacher
After July's Tour de France win Bradley Wiggins opened up about his key early influences, which included that one figure at the heart of most big success stories: an eye-rolling school teacher who told him to stop day-dreaming. "When I was 12 my art teacher said: 'What are you going to do when you leave school, Bradley?' I said, 'I'm going to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour.' She laughed and said: 'What are you really going to do?'"
Kind
Frankel, racing's unbeaten superstar, retired in October to rake in £100m as a full-time lover. But behind every great horse is a great, unsung mother – and Kind, an Irish mare owned by Prince Khalid Abdulla, deserves recognition. A listed winner in her own right before retiring to start a family, three of her four foals have won Group races – Bullet Train, Noble Mission and Frankel. The fourth, Morpheus, made his debut the same month that big brother retired.
The people of Kovos
After the misery of missing out on a medal in Beijing, Beth Tweddle was ready to call it a day. "It was all a horrible experience. I hated myself, I hated the Olympics and I hated gymnastics. There was no way I was going to carry on." But after a week with her flatmate on the Greek island of Kavos where "people kept asking me about the Games", she was set for 2012. "The day I returned home I texted my coach. It had taken that week for me to realise I couldn't walk away." She won bronze in London.
Liz Grainger
Katherine Grainger's gold with Anna Watkins came after years of spirit-crushing silvers and, like Tweddle, a tough decision about whether to retire in 2008. "After the podium in Beijing," Grainger said later, "I had an incredible emotional reunion with my mum behind the stands. We were both in floods of tears. But within hours my mum had said: 'I want to see you in London.'" Liz was in tears again during the 2012 final, before the boats reached halfway.
Lukas Rosol
Andy Murray's 2012 Wimbledon final breakthrough may have ended in defeat, but it was still a landmark pre-Olympic story. And it might never have happened but for the shock second-round mauling of Rafael Nadal by Rosol. The Czech's unlikely 3hr 18min win – followed by a limp straight sets defeat days later – cleared Murray's path to the final.
Mary Kom
The second most infectious smile of the games after Andre Coggins's belonged to Nicola Adams, whose place in history as the first female boxer to win Olympic gold could not have happened without the campaign to include women's boxing in the Games, fronted by "Magnificent Mary" Kom. Kom was beaten by Adams in the semi-final, but earned fame at home in India. "Before this few people recognised me. But now even kids know Mary Kom."
Mick Thompson
Aged 10, Jess Ennis, small, nervous and picked on at school, went to a two-week summer athletics camp in Sheffield. One of the coaches, Mick Thompson, later recalled her first attempt at the hurdles. "All of us there just looked at each other and were like: 'Did you see that?' So I asked her: 'Have you had some coaching,' and she says: 'Oh no, it's the first time I've ever done it.' It really was one of those jaw-dropping moments."
Pat Rollins
In late September, Europe's stunning comeback secured the Ryder Cup – with Pat Rollins a crucial, bashful cog in the win. The Illinois policeman was famously called on to give Rory McIlroy an emergency lift to Medinah after McIlroy misread his tee time, preventing certain disqualification. "I'm getting ribbed for this," Rollins said afterwards. "But I am very proud of our force and our community – we did the right thing." The unmarked squad car, a 2005 Ford Crown Victoria, is due to be auctioned on eBay early in the new year.
Per Hall
Aged five, Jonnie Peacock's life was saved by doctors including surgeon Per Hall. Hall operated after Peacock contracted meningitis, and managed his treatment in the years that followed as his patient grew into a champion sprinter. "Of all the people I treat, there are some that have a determination in life to go on despite their misfortunes. Jonnie is one of those people I feel tearful about because he is so fantastic."
Rosie the dog
Harry Redknapp's defence in his January tax case centred on one fact – his inability to organise a scam because he "can't spell, can't work a computer, I don't know what an email is, I've never even sent a text, I don't write – I couldn't even fill a team sheet in" – and one poignant figure. During January's trial, Harry, cleared of wrongdoing, told how the Monaco account in question was only in the name of his ex-dog Rosie because: "I loved her to bits. Poor old Rosie. She's dead now."
Sheikh Ahmed al-Maktoum
When Team GB's Peter Wilson lost his funding in 2008, Maktoum, an Olympic gold medallist in 2004, stepped in as his new free-of-charge coach. Maktoum told Wilson: "I would ask that you don't tell anyone what we talk about, not even your father." Wilson explained: "It's like fight club – the first rule of fight club, you don't talk about fight club."
The Stambolovas
Team GB dominated the summer's headlines, but behind the patriotic un-British fist-pumping lay plenty of silly season stories, including tributes to athletes with sport-appropriate names – dressage's Rich Fellers and Iran's big-grunting weightlifter Saeid Mohammadpourkarkaragh. Key to them all, though, was the decision of Mr and Mrs Stambolova to encourage their daughter Vania to take up hurdles back in the day. She fell and failed to finish.
Sir Steve Redgrave
Yes the flame, yes the legend, but his greatest act in 2012 was to aid the stricken Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase from their craft and deliver them to John Inverdale on the bank for the interview of the games.
Tessa Jowell
When Jowell approached Cabinet with the idea to host the Olympics in 2003, Tony Blair was sceptical and Gordon Brown set against – iron-fisting the plan until Jowell talked him round. She told Brown in a leaked letter: "It is hard to put a price on national feelgood."
Todd Schmitz
Left his job with California Pizza Kitchen to become coach of the Denver swimming club Colorado Stars under-8s in 2008. In his very first "Starfish" class was seven-year-old newcomer Missy Franklin, who "enjoyed racing, but didn't care much for practice". He coached her all the way to glory in London. "The train was going by, I jumped on and I'm enjoying the ride."
Torsten Berg
You are the ref. It's the women's badminton and you can't help but notice the Chinese, the Indonesians and two Korean pairs are wildly throwing points in an attempt to get a better draw in the knockouts, and the crowd are incensed. What do you do? The Danish referee that day, Torsten Berg, produced a heartening, no-nonsense verdict, disqualifying all eight of them. Order was restored.
Tottenham scout
After the Ryder Cup triumph, figurehead Ian Poulter revealed his big inspiration: a snub from Terry Venables' staff at Spurs when he turned up for trials aged 14. "Whenever somebody tells me I'm not good enough, it acts as motivation. I was rejected in a number of things, and it fuels me, it really does. I might not have been blessed with the talent of some people, but I've got quite a big heart."
YouTube user
Fabio Capello's excuse for his resignation in January was the FA going over his head to intervene in the John Terry racism row. That row, the FA's official report later confirmed, was originally prompted by one unnamed YouTube user uploading a clip of the incident immediately after the game in October 2011. The clip went viral – with viewers including Anton Ferdinand, who saw it on his girlfriend's Blackberry in QPR's players' lounge.
William Zeng
When Trenton Oldfield swam into the path of the Boat Race in April, the pundit who summed the story up best was one of the crew, via Twitter. Oxford's Will Zeng wrote: "When I missed your head with my blade I knew only that you were a swimmer, and if you say you are a protester, then no matter what you say your cause may be, your action speaks too loudly for me to hear you.
"I know with immediate emotion, exactly what you were protesting. You were protesting the right of 17 young men and one woman to compete fairly and honourably, to demonstrate their hard work and desire in a proud tradition. You were protesting their right to devote years of their lives, their friendships, and their souls to the fair pursuit of the joys and the hardships of sport. You, who would make a mockery of their dedication and their courage, are a mockery of a man."
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