Paul Kimmage
Paul Kimmage receiving 2005 SJA sport award
from BBC presenter Rob Bonnet
(Picture courtesy of the SJA)
Paul Kimmage spent his childhood dreaming of making sporting headlines, not writing them.
Twice a national cycling champion, he competed for Ireland at the 1984 Olympic Games, finished sixth at the 1985 World Championships and rode in his first Tour de France in 1986.
In 1989, he began his journalistic career with a weekly diary on the life of a professional cyclist at The Sunday Tribune in Dublin and a year later he accepted an offer to join the staff as a sportswriter.
His first book, "Rough Ride", a seminal insight into the abuse of drugs in cycling, was published in 1990 and won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.
In 2001, he was short-listed for the same award with "Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino"
A former Irish Sportswriter of the Year, he joined The Sunday Times in October 2002 and has been named Sports Interviewer of the year at the SJA awards every year since 2004. He won the award for the fifth time in March 2009.
He lives in County Dublin and is currently working on a new book with former young England rugby international, Matthew Hampson, whose career was tragically cut short through serious injury.
More recently, in November 2009 Paul interviewed world number 1 tennis player Roger Federer for The Times following his success in Wimbledon this year where Federer won his record-breaking 15th Grand Slam.
Rough Ride
Andy's Game: The World Cup Diary of Andy Townsend
Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino
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