Of all the sportspeople I encountered during my life as an athlete, there were few with whom I was more star-struck than Bradley Wiggins.
I remember walking past him in Team GB’s corner of the Athletes’ Village at the London 2012 Olympic Games and such was his sporting success he seemed almost like an alien species compared to the rest of us.
Just a week before those Olympics in 2012, Wiggins had become the first Brit ever to win the Tour de France and his victory in the time trial at London 2012 made him the first person ever to do the Tour-Olympics double in the same year.
At that point in his life, Wiggins’ star could not have been higher – he was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year by an overwhelming margin, was awarded a knighthood and his engaging personality, coupled with his triumphs on the bike, meant he was almost universally loved.
The Englishman was spearheading Team Sky and played a significant part in the boom in cycling across Britain, which saw tens of thousands of people, in particular men, don their Lycra and head out onto the roads in an attempt to emulate Wiggins.
In the 12 years since Wiggins’ incredible summer in 2012, his life has descended into something of a tragedy.
It’s one of the saddest descents I’ve observed.
Athletes falling from grace in the aftermath of their career peak isn’t anything novel.
Depressingly often, a once-great athlete, by one means or another, ends up having their life devastated.
But Wiggins’ downward spiral has been as disheartening as any to witness.
In the wake of the Englishman’s Tour de France and Olympics double, he was, quite rightly, lauded as one of Britain’s greatest-ever sportspeople.
Someone who had achieved so much, surely, had the world at their feet?
Well, whether through his own fault or someone else’s, Wiggins spectacularly failed to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves in the wake of 2012.
Sure, there were further successes to follow; notably another Olympic gold in Rio in 2016, which increased his tally to five Olympic gold medals.
But from there, it was all downhill.
It would be easy to speculate that Wiggins’ descent began when he retired, towards the end of 2016.
Often, elite athletes are entirely clueless about how to fill the gaping hole left in their lives when sport is no longer a constant.
But really, for Wiggins, his issues had begun long before his retirement from cycling.
He’s talked about how, as a child, he had a father who abandoned him, a step-father who bullied him and a coach who sexually abused him.
Given those experiences in childhood, it’s perhaps of little surprise that Wiggins became something of a messed-up adult.
Indeed, he’s described cycling as a welcome distraction to his myriad of personal issues.
It’s not only problems from childhood that have plagued Wiggins, though.
Soon after winning his fifth Olympic gold medal in Rio in 2016, a hacking group called Fancy Bears leaked files which raised significant questions about Wiggins’ use of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs), which allow athletes with medical conditions to take banned substances legally. Doubt was raised about whether or not Wiggins was being administered these substances for actual pre-existing conditions.
And more questions were raised abut Wiggins during Team Sky’s infamous “jiffy bag” scandal, which suggested Wiggins was potentially being delivered an unnamed banned substance.
But it’s his financial woes that have been the source of most of Wiggins’ problems for nearly a decade.
Several tussles with HMRC have left the 44-year-old with hefty tax bills and finally, earlier this year, he was declared bankrupt, with reports claiminghe has £2 million of debt.
He has been described as borderline destitute, a man with no fixed address who has been reduced to sleeping on friends’ sofas. Wiggins has dismissed these suggestions but they’re not tabloid sensationalism, rather they were comments made by the Englishman’s own lawyer.
Wiggins’ issues made me think of Chris Hoy.
The two were teammates for a decade at British Cycling, with both writing themselves into the history books with their achievements on a bike.
Yet the contrast in other areas of their lives could not be more stark.
Wiggins has endured years of hardship, financial woes and psychological battles whereas Hoy seemed to have taken almost perfectly to retirement. Yet, following his cancer diagnosis, it’s Hoy who will likely not get the years he deserves to reap the rewards of the success he achieved as a bike rider.
Wiggins, on the other hand, still has time to get his life back on track, if that remains a possibility.
What’s been so noticeable about Wiggins, though, is that every time he claims to have “sorted things out”, another disastrous event is just around the corner.
So far, at least, every time Wiggins claims to be in a good place, it’s only a matter of months before he encounters yet another obstacle.
It’s always sad to see a once successful person fall so far, but even more so when it’s someone like Wiggins who, it seemed, had the world at his feet given his achievements on a bike and the affection felt towards him by the British public.
Earlier this week, Wiggins revealed that Lance Armstrong, of all people, has offered to pay for him to go to therapy as he attempts to get back on the straight and narrow.
Whether he takes advantage of Armstrong’s offer or not, or whether he finds another way to sort his life out, only time will tell.
One way or another, someone who is indisputably one of Britain’s greatest-ever sportsmen must find a way to halt the spiral soon.
