British former professional road and track racing cyclist
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
I bought a pink leader’s jersey from the 1953 Tour of Italy which belonged to Swiss rider Hugo Koblet. I spent £45,000.
Sport
People on the record here who work in sport, and what they were asked.
11 people · 394 answers
Excluding property, what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's weekly The Q&A repeatedly uses this standing prompt, with minor contractions and word-order variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2024
A holiday in New York for my son Arran’s 18th.
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
A road track car, a Porsche GT3. I’ve done the 24-hour race in Le Mans, which was a dream come true.
British cyclist
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
A horse. I have two: Vesperal Dream and According To Sarah.
British athlete
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
A fast Golf car. I got rid of it after about six months because it kept depreciating in value.
English footballer and pundit
Recorded · The Guardian · 2023
Thirty-odd years ago I bought a black pinstripe suit which I thought was £900. But when I went to pay that was just the jacket – the trousers and waistcoat were extra.
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
British tennis player
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
When I was five, I wanted to be a cleaning lady; when I was nine, I wanted to be the world’s number one tennis player.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2025
I was a huge daydreamer and imagined myself as a successful general leading his troops into battle.
British track cyclist, 1994–2013
Recorded · The Guardian · 2018
Scotland’s rugby captain. My hero Gavin Hastings was captain when he came to our school for a training session when I was 10 or 11. I met him and was blown away.
British track and field athlete
Recorded · The Guardian · 2019
A mechanic when I was a little kid, and then, when I came to the UK, I wanted to play professional football.
Baseball catcher and manager; ten-time World Series winner with the New York Yankees
Recorded · Wikiquote · n.d.
My ambition is to hit .400 and talk 1.000.
Czech and American tennis player
Recorded · The Guardian · 2017
I always wanted to play tennis. Otherwise, I always thought it would be fun to do something in mathematics or physics.
What do you fear most?
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2021
Being on a plane that is about to crash.
Basketball player and author
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2020
Years ago, before I had my current manager, I was taken advantage of by people I’d trusted with my finances. That’s made me especially sensitive to the prospect of financial ruin.
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2010
I don’t think I have one in particular. I am pretty calm. Just some small things that I better not comment on :-).
Everyone here · A–Z
Ally McCoist, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Bonington, Chris Hoy, Harry Redknapp, Jonnie Peacock, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Paul Merson, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Simone Biles