SEBASTIAN VETTEL (Ger) Red Bull Racing (Formula 1) - He's the youngest EVERYTHING in Formula One. Youngest grand prix driver at 19, youngest pole sitter at 21, the same year he became the youngest race winner and to cap it all at just 23 this year, he's the sport's youngest ever world champion.
He topped my list for having survived and won what was an extreme, high-pressure season amidst a field that included four previous world champions in the likes of Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. He came out on top amidst claims of infighting within Red Bull Racing itself as he tussled for superiority with far more experienced teammate Mark Webber. More to come from this baby-faced assassin.
TEAM OF THE YEAR
BORUSSIA DORTMUND (football) - I know many will say Spain, Inter Milan or Barcelona. But this young team takes my cake because of their injection of new found belief, in this day and age, that money isn't everything in football.
Coach Jurgen Klopp, a relative unknown outside of Germany, has moulded a squad based on youth with some exciting young talents that have surprised the likes of German moneybags Bayern Munich, VFB Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg.
A squad boasting some of the most promising youngsters anywhere in the likes of Turkish playmaker Nuri Sahin, German centre-back Matts Hummels, both just 22, 18-year old sensation Mario Gotze and 21-year old Japanese top scorer Shinji Kagawa, Dortmund have shocked the Bundesliga by closing 2010 on top of the league with 14 wins out of 17 matches played and are 10 points clear of equally surprising second-placed Mainz.
Balance that with the value of FC Bayern's squad of 23 and you'd be left wondering what Klopp has been feeding his youngsters. Imagine that Dortmund never even featured among the league's top five in the previous five seasons and you can't figure out how they've come to so effectively dominate this season.
Definitely this squad is already promising more than the Andreas Moller-led team that emerged champions of Europe in 1997.
SURPRISE OF THE YEAR
FRANCESCA SCHIAVONE (ITA) winning the French Open (tennis) - If you'd asked anyone in January to name any of the winners of tennis' Grand Slams, the names that popped up would have been anything between the Williams sisters, comeback queen Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic or any of the current wave of top Eastern Europeans.
Nobody in their right minds would have even mentioned Francesca Schiavone. The 30-year old had been there or thereabouts throughout her career, but even in Italy she'd often lived in the shadow of the more illustrious and popular Flavia Penetta.
But there she was having benefited from crowd favourite Elena Dementieva retiring with an injury in the semi-finals, to set up the surprise final of the decade against Australia's Samantha Stosur. She was seeded 17th prior to the meet and had never ever came within sniffing distance of a Grand Slam title in her career. But she ends 2010 with something even she never thought would have happened this year - a Grand Slam title.
FLOP OF THE YEAR
LANCE ARMSTRONG (USA) cycling - Returning to the sport last year targeting a gigantic eighth Tour de France title, the hype surrounding the legend's return totally gripped the cycling world, so much so that people thought he could easily outdo teammate Alberto Contador in the Astana team last year. that triggered friction between the two that resulted in Armstrong and eternal team boss Johan Bruyneel shipping out and coming up with their own Radioshack team for this year.
Armed with the lieutenants of his choice and at 39, named as among the favourites to dethrone nemesis Contador, Armstrong simply fell flat of expectations and will aptly, and for the second time, call time on his career this year.
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