Oliver Brown

Oliver Brown is Britain's foremost sports writer and has enjoyed an exceptional year. His insight and understanding is superb, and his ability to turn his hand to any sport with the same authority is unparalleled.

He has an instinctive understanding of stories which matter to Telegraph readers, which came to the fore during the story of Imane Khelif and the boxing row which dominated the Paris Olympics. Oliver has become an expert on the issue and wrote about it extensively in the build-up, warning that the IOC had made a huge mistake in not taking a firmer stance on whether Khelif and Lin Yu-ting should be competing at the Games.

This came to the fore during Khelif's first fight against Italian boxer Angela Carini, who quit after 46 seconds. Oliver was ringside and wrote a coruscating piece lambasting the 'gutless IOC cowards', labelling the story 'a scandal, an institutional failure on a sickening scale'. It was a hugely powerful piece of reporting, providing the definitive take on an enormous story that gathered momentum as both Khelif and Lin won gold. It was a story that truly resonated with readers and Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, quoted Oliver's piece when raising her concerns over the fight.

Oliver is also willing to stand up to authority, and this was clearly shown with his superb piece after being denied entry to Anthony Joshua's fight against Daniel Dubois at Wembley. In the build-up to the fight he wrote the fight was a clear case of Saudi sportswashing, after which he was contacted to be told his accreditation was being withdrawn. Oliver wrote a piece that was rightly dripping in molten fury, explaining how a brutal dictatorship was threatening the free press - all from the home of English football. The piece generated real cut through and led to fulsome apologies from the boxing world and confirmation such a scenario would never be allowed to happen again.

Oliver is also a fantastic feature writer and that was evidenced by his extraordinary piece on the friendship between Jessie Owens and Luz Long, which flourished at the 1936 Olympic Games. Oliver spent time with Long's family in Munich and the piece was both revealing and effecting as it artfully dissected 88 years of history and how the two families had remained in contact during the intervening decades.

These three pieces demonstrate a writer at the very top of his game, working across every sport with a deftness and authority few can match. Oliver is also the ultimate all-rounder with these three pieces showing he can write incisive comment from live events, lay out a clear argument for a free press, and skillfully piece together an outstanding feature. Doing so with such authority and confidence is the mark of a rare talent, and demonstrates that Oliver has enjoyed a truly outstanding year in what has been a huge 12 months in the sporting world.