Kim Ashkenazi

[TooFastTim]

Gowing up in a coseted, sheltered lifestyle surrounded by fans and lackeys extolling the virtues of your talents is no basis for personal growth. When the music stops and the fans move on, unless you have provided for your future, you will have to earn a living in the real world and this is a rude shock to those that have given up everything, including their childhood, in search of success in the sporting arena.

For every one that makes it there are 1000's who have compromised their futures in search of the dream. Is it worth it? Well that is a question for the individual, but if you look at the numbers, it sure isn't a life I would wish on my children.

Well said.

[ba-02-xr]

After reading your replies to my topic all I can say is you need to go to his talk. It is great that you all are giving him a "second chance", he does deserve it. But he talks about a lot of stuff that was his life & it answers a lot of questions.

[Nathan S]

I think there's a certain personality trait that you need to have to be really good at a competitive sport - and it generally doesn't make you a "nice" person in real life (and I'm not talking about the public persona).

We've all got our sporting heroes, but its rare that the personality matches up with the sporting achievements. Peter Brock was one of the obvious exceptions - but then we all discovered that there were not so nice things about him too...

Meh. Warney is famous for being a brilliant bowler, not for being a top bloke - the hysteria about where he stuck/tried to stick his appendage was a f#$king joke. The outrage would have been justified if his claim to fame was being some sort of moral campaigner but he wasn't - he was a bloke who could bowl a red leather ball well. What relevence does his taste in pommy slappers have to his ability to play cricket?

I think the Ashkenazi story is far more interesting because is about the top level racer (with the almost mandatory character flaws) turning back into a human being.

[Marc.com]

Also it is a credit to Kim that when he was caught by the boys in blue he put his hand up, admitted his crimes, pleaded guilty and took it on the chin.

Yeah I was ready to take the piss as is my want but when I think about it we started pretty young in South Taranaki but there was no social networking and phone cameras and we just got busy, shit we were apprenticed and earning a living at 17 and the girls were 16 +/_  and already had there first kid a lot of the time. Nobody was waiting to arrest you.

[EML]

yeah Mark, but that is Sth Taranaki, not somewhere flash like Rotorua.

[Marc.com]

yeah Mark, but that is Sth Taranaki, not somewhere flash like Rotorua.

Dude you gotta watch that stuff in Rotorua, girls there have wised up that you can get 100K off victims compensation so it is the historical charge capital of NZ. They have a different attitude over there.

[EML]

Mate I was born there, where do I sign up for the 100k?----I need it to buy more sidecars.
Hang on, that alone should get me 500k