By Jake Niall
Whether Mick Fanning goes on to claim a fourth world title or not in Hawaii, his 2015 achievements – and his sad and stirring story – warrant a special place in our sporting annals.
In the same year when he was knocked off his board by a shark in South Africa, Fanning has dived back into the water and is within a few rides of winning the world title.
But Fanning's does not need to win to be feted. His efforts on Thursday morning at the Pipeline Masters – and his challenging past year – mark him as an increasing rarity in the ruthless business of professional sport: an inspiration.
Jason Day will have his supporters as the Australian sporting figure of the year, having won a major and held the No.1 ranking. But Fanning's performances, given the emotional waves he's ridden, surely elevate him to be the sportsman of 2015.
Emotional: Kelly Slater and Mick Fanning at the Pipe Masters.Credit: Getty Images
A confrontation with a shark would trouble most of us. Consider then how Fanning coped with the devastation of losing his older brother Peter – having already experienced the death of another brother – before he took to the water against the world's best surfers.
Consider, too, that conditions presented more than the usual danger, one rider having broken his pelvis when he crashed into a reef. Fanning, clearly, was unfazed by the perils of the Pipeline.
The obvious comparison that sprang to mind was Damien Oliver's winning ride on Media Puzzle in the 2002 Melbourne Cup, following the death of his brother Jason in a training accident.
But within the surfing fraternity, the parallels were immediately drawn with another Australian great who won the Pipeline Masters in 1987. Tom Carroll, like Fanning, had lost a sibling, his older sister having died in a car accident two days earlier. Carroll did not know of his sister's death until the day before competed at the Pipeline. Carroll, who has just returned from the Pipeline and was back in Sydney on Thursday, said losing a family member in the midst of a competition was difficult to process. "It's a lifetime of processing that information."
Mick Fanning of Australia after his Round 3 heat at the Billabong Pipe Masters. Credit: WSL/Kirstin
Carroll said that, on the day he surfed after losing his sister, he actually found the task "clearer and cleaner" because he was less worried about little things.
Carroll said his experience was that he also was not surfing for himself on that day. He described his Pipeline win as a win "for something bigger than us, that victory became clearer and cleaner.
Fanning of Australia winning his Round 4 heat to advance directly to the quarter finals.Credit: WSL/Kirstin Scholtz
"It's not wrapped (up) in yourself. It [Fanning's] just an extraordinary story. He's had an incredible year to reflect on.
"I really feel for his mother Liz."
For a three-time world champion, Fanning has not enjoyed the level of acclaim his feats warrant. In part that's because Australians are to surfing what they once were to tennis and due to the sport's lower station in television. We have 10 of the top 20 men in the surfing rankings and seven of the best 20 women.
Surely, that's about to change now.