Ronnie O'Sullivan

Ronnie O'Sullivan grew up in Chigwell, Essex, where his father ran a chain of sex shops and had a snooker table put in the house. He made his first century break at ten and turned professional at 16. Within months of that, in 1992, his father was arrested for murder after a fight in a nightclub and sentenced to life. A few years later his mother was jailed for tax evasion, and Ronnie, still a teenager, was left looking after his younger sister.

He was the most naturally gifted player the game had seen, and in 1997 he made a maximum 147 break in five minutes and eight seconds, which still stands as the fastest ever. He was also, for long stretches, a mess. He drank, used drugs, checked into rehab, and went through periods of depression so severe that he walked out of matches and threatened to quit for good. He has said he saw the game as something he hated as much as he loved.

Running became his way of managing it. He joined a club, ran cross-country most days and found it steadied him more than anything else had. He won his first world title in 2001 and his seventh in 2022, at 46, the oldest champion in the modern era, equalling the record.

He has written openly about mental health and addiction.