It's that time of the year again, when we start pondering who and why the best of British should be named Sportsman and Sportswoman of 2013.

A straight fight, surely between history-making Wimbledon champion Andy Murray and the ever-redoubtable Mo Farah for the men's title. Murray is surely well ahead on points on the cards of most of us and should be a shoo-in for the overall BBC Sports Personality award.

But, unlike the Olympic year of 2012, this has not been a vintage one individually for British sporting womankind, only Christine Ohuruogu, who claimed a second world title at Moscow's World Athletics Championships, the first British woman to do so, by winning the 400 metres, stands out as a top contender.

Though the performances of two fellow Olympic champions, boxer Nicola Adams in defending her European title and horsewoman Charlotte Dujardin in winning double gold in the European Dressage Championships are worthy of honourable mentions.

So too in my estimation is a woman of whom the sports world has never heard - certainly not outside her immediate circle of family, friends and admirers. But is she the best sporting all-rounder in Britain for her achievements over the past year?

Jen Offord has attempted every one of the 26 sports on the London 2012
programme in the course of a year


When Jen Offord puffed her way across the finishing line after a five kilometre run through London's Bushy Park last month it signalled not only the completion of her first triathlon but the culmination of a remarkable Olympic odyssey in which she has attempted every one of the 26 sports on the London 2012 programme, embracing 38 different disciplines, in the course of a year.

"I was gasping, exhausted," she exclaimed. "But exhilarated at the same time. It had been some journey."

One that began when the curtain came down on a London Games the 30-year-old Essex-born civil servant from the Olympic heartland of Hackney had actually wanted to get away from.

"I have always been a bit sport-phobic and living in the East End and working in Westminster I thought the disruption would be horrendous and I would be getting it both barrels," she told insidethegames. "I was a real cynic about the Olympics and it got to the point when I seriously considered leaving London for the duration."

But she stayed to be captivated by them and says now: "I might cry just thinking about those amazing weeks. I was a HUGE Olympics cynic. I genuinely thought something bad would happen, the transport system would collapse or we'd just eff it up and embarrass ourselves in front of the whole world.

Sebastian Prieto taught Jen Offord the rudiments of handball


"So much so that I forgot I've always really enjoyed the Olympics, didn't get any tickets for anything and actually considered leaving London for the duration of it all.

"I changed my mind during the Torch Relay when I started to experience an uncharacteristic sense of national pride and enthusiasm. The Opening Ceremony was truly beautiful and reduced the room of - admittedly drunk - adults I was with to tears.

"The sun shone and there was an amazing buzz around London, a city that I fell back in love with as I watched the Olympics unfold on giant screens and at all the freebie events with thousands of others.

"What grabbed me most was the variety of sports. I felt we had been so saturated in the media with football that we had forgotten there are so many other sports that are truly amazing and quite inspirational.

"Afterwards I thought I'd like to have a go at one, but I wasn't sure which.

A friend jokingly suggested she should try them all.

"I thought, that's not a bad idea. Let's have a bash at the lot," Offord said.

And so happened an astonishing volte-face for someone who by her own admission, is not naturally sporty or athletic and admits she used to bunk off PE at school.

"I did the London Marathon in 2009 - finishing in 6 hours 5 minutes - but that was as much for exercise as anything. I also went to a few gym classes but the primary motivation for that was to enable me to eat more cake!"

So hard on the heels of Lord Coe's Inspire A Generation came Inspire A Jen, a one-woman mission of truly Olympic proportions, which she kick-started with a canoe sprint at the Stoke Newington reservoir. She found it "tremendous fun and so exciting".

Playing hockey with Chloe Rogers


Following this, she ran the whole gamut of sport from archery to wrestling, regularly producing an illuminating and amusing blog, which attracted support from Dame Kelly Holmes and offers of tuition and advice from several members of the London 2012 Team GB. Among them was Sebastian Prieto, who taught her the rudiments of handball, and Chloe Rogers hockey.

Acquiring a bike, she named Beyoncé - no doubt because it was amply-upholstered at the rear - she entered the Boris Johnson-backed Prudential RideLondon 100 and agonisingly recalls: "The problem with endurance sports is that they can do slightly horrible things to the human body, as Paula Radcliffe found to her detriment, in Athens.

"I guess it was a combination of my lack of training, the disgusting, sugary nonsense that I was fuelling my body with and not being used to being hunched over for hours on end, but by the time I'd reached the top of Leith Hill, the stomach cramps I was experiencing were torturously painful."

Moreover, Beyoncé's chain came off. "I didn't have a bloody clue what to do but thankfully a very helpful lady spectator came to my rescue."

Offord also pedalled and puffed her way through a mountain bike ride, a BMX circuit and an Omnium at Herne Hill.

Down in Bath former Olympic medallist Kate Allenby took her through the rigours of the five-event modern pentathlon - horse riding, swimming, fencing, shooting and running - and was sufficiently impressed to report: "Jen put herself outside her comfort zone on so many occasions, yet she was really positive and outgoing about the whole challenge. She was very easy to coach, taking information on board and putting it into practice."

Jen Offord said water polo was the hardest of the Olympic sports


Always determined not just to dabble, or be dismissed as a dilettante, Offord says water polo was the hardest, and synchronised swimming the weirdest, the latter "all rather cliquey".

Boxing she found the most fascinating. "Trying it totally changed my view of the sport. Beforehand I thought it was about a bunch of gnarly-eared blokes lumping each other's brains out. It turns out there's quite a bit more to it than this - it's incredibly skilful, for a start.

She blogged after trying the Girls in Gloves scheme with instructor Naomi Gibson at the Body Studio in Shoreditch: "Naomi tells me, 'Keep your arms up to protect your boobs - you do NOT want to get punched on the tit.' Damn straight. I don't really want to get punched anywhere. This sport has taught me that I'm all mouth and no trousers, that I'm a massive wuss and surprisingly adverse to the idea of punching someone in the face, but the training sessions are amazing."

Offord adds that she has enjoyed so many sports, devoting evenings, weekends and holidays, it is hard to choose one to stick with permanently. "I was surprised to find I was quite good at gymnastics and track cycling. I have a bike now so cycling is high on my list.

"There are so many positive things about sport. One thing I have learned is that you don't have to be good at it to enjoy it.

"A lot of people out there were like me. They maybe didn't like sport that much at school, they have a vague aspiration to get involved now, but they don't really know what they would try and how they would go about doing it."

Although she never envisaged her groundbreaking project as another giant step for womankind, she does offer a message that sport should have no sexual barriers. "Unless participation actually depends on you having male sex organs, how can a sport not be 'a woman's sport'? If you've ever believed anyone who told you that participation in a sport depended on your having male sex organs, frankly, you've been had.

Jen Offord said the boxing training sessions were "amazing"


"I also think that we're not exposed to enough variety of sport. Teenagers aren't necessarily inspired to try anything beyond the mainstream sports that are on offer at school, so they don't think there is something out there for them.

"I'm almost certain that anyone could find a sport that they enjoy, and take considerable health and social benefits from - they just don't necessarily know what it is yet.

"In light of my experiences my views on sport have completely changed and I'm totally converted now. I'm fitter, stronger and happier as well."

Then name of Jen Offord may not appear on any sporting A-list at the end of the year when the awards are handed out but her unique contribution to the Olympic spirit surely is worthy of an VIP invitation and some public recognition, even if it is a just an honourable mention from Seb Coe.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.