THE WHYTE STUFF
Most of us like reading those stories about young, unnoticed or rejected athletes that go on to make it big. The bigger, the better. Like American footballer Tom Brady who was famously picked second to last in the NFL Draft but went on to win the Superbowl seven times and earn $270 million. There’s something brilliant and human about sticking it in the face of the naysayers… like that English teacher who said you’d never write a sentence coherent-like.
The story in reverse though is far more interesting, and far rarer. Athletes who could have competed at the highest level, but chose to step back from it. Athletes who decided for various reasons – ethically, emotionally, physically – that their chosen sport wouldn’t be their profession or how they earn their keep. Athletes like Sam Shucksmith.
Picked for the British squad to race downhill as a junior, Sam found himself aged 17 racing World Cups in Maribor and Schladming and competing with one of the strongest generations of young riders. OK, so this isn’t the NFL, Sam isn’t in the same league (or sport, for that matter) as Brady,
