Taylor’s star quality worth more than its weight in gold

When it comes to the phenomenon that is Katie Taylor, the key word is perspective.

Tue, 24 Jul, 2012 - 01:00

Kieran Shannon is an award-winning sportswriter renowned for big interviews, insightful columns and an unrelenting focus on high‑performance sport.

She’s our one gold medal probable heading into these Olympics. Win it and she’ll be hailed by the masses here as “our greatest sportsperson ever”. Should she fail to win it, well then she’ll have to deal with the C word.

The critics and the cynics love that C word. Colm Cooper is the greatest Gaelic footballer most of us have ever seen, played in eight All-Ireland finals, but one well-known commentator from Derry dismissed him at the weekend as a choker because he didn’t perform in a club championship game. Greg Norman won two majors in his career but people tend to harp on about those he didn’t, especially The Choke at the ’96 Masters. All over the world, people seemed to revel in how protracted and agonising LeBron James’ quest for an NBA title was.