His boxing career is dead and the epitaph reads: ”Here lies the once skilful Lehlohonolo Ledwaba, who committed suicide after experiencing more pain than pleasure in the cut-throat game.” Ledwaba, a three-time world champion, ended his life as a fighter by disclosing to the Sunday Times that he had an eye injury that had required surgery.

Carolina Kluft takes a deep breath as she begins to explain what it is like to be the greatest female athlete of her generation, to be unbeaten for five years and still feel, like the rest of us, frazzled and sometimes vulnerable. ”I’m only human, so I definitely feel the pressure all the time,” the multiple world, Olympic and European heptathlon champion says plaintively.

When lock Johann Muller takes the field at the head of the Springboks in Christchurch on Saturday, he will become the 53rd captain of his country and, remarkably, the fourth different Springbok captain in this year’s Tri-Nations. Four captains in four games is not something to be proud of, even if coach Jake White can cite certain extenuating circumstances.

For most people on Earth today, sport plays a much larger emotional part in their lives than politics. We vote every four or five years, but we follow our teams every week. The pattern of the modern year is dictated by the sporting season rather than the church calendar. Instead of Easter and Whitsun, we look forward to the Cup final, to the Open and to the Test.