Who says sport and politics don’t mix? Carl Lewis is the latest sports star to join the political fray following Imran Khan who aims to become president of Pakistan and world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao who has similar ambitions in the Philippines, where he is a congressman.
Test cricketers Arjuna Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya sit on opposite sides of the Sri Lankan parliament. Antonio Rattin, infamously sent off against England in the 1966 World Cup, became an MP in Argentina, where ex-Pumas rugby captain Hugo Porta served as sports minister, as did Olympic hurdler Guy Drut in France.
Back home we have the Tory lords and ex-MPs Seb Coe and Colin Moynihan while paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is a Labour peer.
But one sporting politico you would not want to heckle is David Haye-conqueror Wladimir Klitschko’s big brother Vitali, 40, who leads the opposition party Udar (which appropriately translates as Punch) in his native Ukraine.
Giant Vitali has even put his WBC heavyweight title at risk by breaking training for next Saturday’s defence in Poland against Tomasz Adamek to sort a political punch-up back home back where, he says: “Ukrainians are living under a dictatorship and total corruption, and it is my duty to fight this.” Someone should get readyto duck.
