Spoty 2024 is Murray and Anderson’s final farewell and I may sue for severe distress | Emma John
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Do you have the Kleenex at the ready? Because the retirement of two British sporting greats is a powerful memento mori. It’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year on Tuesday, so ask yourself: are you prepared for montage season? It’s dangerous to go into these things cold. You never know which clips are going to hijack your limbic system and leave you a gulping, snot-strewn mess. It could be Keely Hodgkinson crossing the line, or Ollie Watkins’ goal in the Euros semi-final, but it may equally be pommel horse guy hugging a Kazakh you’ve never heard of, or Luke Littler eating a squashie. Either way, it’s worth quietly sliding the box of Kleenex within reach of the sofa.
![[Emma John]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/06/Emma-John,-R.png?width=180&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Having spent the last six months therapeutically processing the retirements of Andy Murray and Jimmy Anderson, I know exactly what my triggers are going to be, and if the BBC replay that “Thank you, Andy” video from Wimbledon, I may sue for emotional distress. It’s pretty rare for anyone’s two favourite sportspeople to make their final exits within weeks of each other, but no one consulted me about the scheduling and, as a result, July was a pretty rocky month, thanks for asking.
![[A young Jimmy Anderson in action during the fifth Ashes at the Oval in 2009]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c246ccb3dcf89e19ce8232d50a723b3179966087/0_148_4136_2483/master/4136.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Neither Anderson nor Murray were granted the perfect ending to their careers. One was hurried offstage; the other looked, at times, like he’d be carried off it in pieces. Murray’s heartbreaking farewell was an evocation of all that had come before. Injury stymied his final Wimbledon appearance – just the one doubles match with his brother – while his Olympic campaign alongside Dan Evans became a throwback to the early days when he was never beaten, until he was.
![[Andy Murray en route to beating Radek Stepanek at Wimbledon in 2005]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f9091c07c20a67ae6fcf59e4298d21ab11b22ff8/0_77_3004_1803/master/3004.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
