SIXTY years old today, Muhammad Ali is one of a tiny band who can be genuinely described as a living legend.
Looking at him now, made frail by Parkinson's Disease, it is hard to see the young Cassius Marcellus Clay.
Fortunately, we have television footage to remind us of the boxer who sprang from nowhere to create one of sport's greatest shocks when he defeated Sonny Liston to become world champion in 1964.
He had a unique and powerful combination: strength, grace, incredible self-belief, intelligence and humour. It is ironic that the sport that made him has now brought him down; but he is safe in the knowledge that he is our Sportsman Of The Century.
Updated: 10:33 Thursday, January 17, 2002
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