Schlager's feat

Table tennis world champion Werner Schlager has not only ended Chinese domination of the sport but was recently named Austria's Sportsman of the Year after a five-year monopoly by the country's skiers. It was the first time since FC Cologne footballer Toni Polster won in 1998 that a sportsman outside the ski-mad nation's traditional realm of winter sports had triumphed. Twice overall World Cup ski champion Stephan Eberharter won last year after double Olympic and world ski champion Hermann Maier took the honours in the previous four years. But skiing once again dominated the women's award as Michaela Dorfmeister, the 2002 overall World Cup champion, got the most votes thanks to a gold medal in super-G at the St. Moritz world championships and her downhill World Cup crown.