Good evening and welcome to Sportsnight. Tonight's programme is a very special one--we're going to vote for the greatest sports personality of all tome. Or rather you are--at the end of the programme you can ring us and tell us your choice. We've got our own ideas, of course, but we want to hear from you. You can vote for anybody--just ring at the special number we will give you at the end of the programme and tell us his or her name. But first we've asked our own Sportsnight reporters to give us their choices for the sports personality of all time.

Activity 3 and 4

Tapescript

(PRE=presenter; J1=1st journalist ; J2= 2nd journalist; J3=3rd journalist)

PRE: Let's start with you, Desmond.

J1: Well for me there's only one choice--Muhammad Ali. He called himself the greatest, and he really was the greatest. He was born with the name Cassius Clay, but he changed this to Muhammad Ali when he changed his religion and became a Muslim. That was just after he become world champion in 1964. He became a professional boxer in 1960 after winning a gold medal at the Rome Olympics, after that he dominate the sport for nearly twenty years. Anyway, he was world champion until 1978 and he actually fought and won 22out of 24 world championship fights. Outside the ring, he was known as a poet. He wrote poems about his fights. He often predicted the exact moment in the fight when he was going to win!

PRE: Wow! That's quite a talent. Lynne, who's your choice?

J2: Well I'm going to choose an athlete--the Kenyan middle distance runner Kip Keino. I really think he was extraordinary. For me, Kip Keino is what the Olympic Games are all about. He was almost unknown when ha arrived in Mexico for the 1968 Olympic. His first race was the 10,000meters. He was in the lead, but just before the end he was in terrible pain and had to pull out of the race. Four days later he won the silver in the 5,000 metres. But the pain returned and doctors told him to stay in bed for the rest of the games. But he was entered for another race--the 1,500 metres. On the day of the race he got stuck in a traffic jam--so what did he do? He got out of the bus and ran to the Olympic stadium. He arrived just before the start of the race. The rest is history--he took the gold medal,beating the world record holder the American Jim Ryan, in 3 minutes 34.9 seconds, an extraordinary time for the high altitude of Mexico.

PRE: As you say, an athlete in the best Olympic tradition. Finally, your choice, Simon.

J3: My choice is the greatest player of the world's greatest game--I'm talking about football, of course. And the greatest footballer was Pele. When he began playing football as a teenager he worked cleaning shoes. He played in his first World Cup when he was just seventeen--and scored two goals in the final. Altogether he played in four world cup competitions, the last one was in 1970 and Brazil won that too. They played Italy in the final and Pele scored a fantastic goal with his head. Afterwards he said it was his favourite goal. He retired in 1974 after scoring 1,280goals.

PRE: Yes, I think that must be a record, too. Well, there you have three ideas for the sports personality of all time, but the choice is up to you, and you can start ringing us now at the following number--287--