IELTS Speaking Part 2: A Successful Sportsperson You Admire – Model Answers 2026

This Part 2 topic asks candidates to describe a real athlete and, importantly, explain what makes their success meaningful rather than just listing achievements. It appears regularly across recent IELTS Speaking question banks.

Cue Card

Describe a sportsperson you admire.

You should say:
– Who this person is
– What sport they play
– How you learned about them
– And explain why you admire them

Model Answer

The sportsperson I admire most is Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis player. I am not someone who follows sport closely in general, but tennis is an exception, largely because of him.

I first became aware of him watching a French Open final on television with my father, who has followed the sport for decades. What struck me immediately was not just his skill, which was obviously exceptional, but the intensity he brought to every single point, even ones that seemed to matter very little in the context of the overall match. My father explained afterwards that this had been a defining trait of his entire career, and once I started paying attention, I noticed it in almost everything he did on court.

What I admire most about him is not actually the number of titles he has won, impressive as that record is. It is the way he has handled a long series of serious injuries throughout his career without ever appearing to feel sorry for himself publicly. Most players at that level, when faced with the physical setbacks he has experienced, would have retired years earlier or at least complained more visibly about the unfairness of it. He simply came back, repeatedly, often against the advice of people who thought his career was effectively over.

There is also something admirable in how he treats opponents. Even in the most competitive matches, he is consistently gracious afterward, win or lose. In a sport that can bring out a fairly ugly side of competitiveness in some athletes, that consistency has genuinely shaped how I think about handling setbacks in my own life, well beyond the context of sport.

Why This Works

The answer separates admiration for skill from admiration for character, which is a more sophisticated distinction than simply praising talent. The closing sentence connects the athlete’s example to the speaker’s own life, which is exactly the kind of personal reflection examiners respond well to.

📌 Band 7-8 Vocabulary:
– defining trait — a characteristic that is central to someone’s identity
– physical setbacks — injuries or health issues that interrupt progress
– gracious — showing kindness and good manners, especially when it would be easy not to
– consistency — behaving the same reliable way over time
– shaped how I think — influenced someone’s perspective or approach

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Sport and Achievement Questions and Model Answers

Question 1: Why do people admire successful athletes?

Model Answer:
Athletes offer a visible, measurable form of excellence that is rare in most fields. Unlike success in business or academia, which can be difficult to evaluate from the outside, sporting achievement is captured in scores, times, and titles that anyone can understand instantly. There is also the discipline factor. People respect the visible sacrifice, the early mornings and years of repetitive training, even if they would never choose that life themselves. Psychologists studying fandom, including work published through outlets like the American Psychological Association, have linked this admiration to a basic human desire to associate with excellence, even vicariously.

Question 2: Do you think athletes are paid too much?

Model Answer:
It depends heavily on the sport and the market forces behind it. Athletes in globally broadcast sports like football and basketball generate enormous revenue through media rights and sponsorship, so their pay largely reflects the value they create for those industries rather than an arbitrary decision. That said, the disparity between elite athletes in popular sports and equally dedicated athletes in less commercially visible sports, such as many Olympic disciplines, does raise questions about whether the reward system fairly reflects effort or purely reflects market visibility.

Question 3: What qualities make a good sports coach?

Model Answer:
Technical knowledge is only the starting point. The best coaches, people like Alex Ferguson in football or Phil Jackson in basketball, are frequently described by their former players not primarily for tactical genius but for their ability to manage personalities and motivate individuals differently depending on what each person needed. Patience matters enormously too, since improvement in sport is rarely linear, and a coach who reacts badly to setbacks can damage an athlete’s confidence more than any physical training issue would.

Question 4: Should children be encouraged to play competitive sports?

Model Answer:
Generally yes, though the emphasis matters. Competitive sport teaches children how to lose gracefully and keep trying, a skill that transfers directly to academic and professional life. The risk is when competitiveness is introduced too early or too intensely, which sports psychologists have linked to burnout and early dropout from physical activity altogether. Countries with the best long-term participation rates, several in Scandinavia among them, tend to delay serious competition until adolescence and prioritise enjoyment and skill-building beforehand.

Examiner Tips for IELTS Speaking Part 2 A Sportsperson You Admire

Tip 1: Separate skill from character.
Admiring someone purely for winning is a weaker answer than admiring how they handle adversity or treat others.

Tip 2: Use a real, nameable athlete.
A specific name and sport is always more convincing than a vague description of “a famous athlete.”

Tip 3: In Part 3, reference real coaches or institutions.
Alex Ferguson, Phil Jackson, the APA. These references demonstrate wider awareness beyond your personal opinion.

Common Mistakes on This Topic

Only listing achievements without explaining personal admiration
Choosing an athlete you cannot say anything specific about
Giving Part 3 opinions with no example or reference behind them
Forgetting to answer how you learned about the person, as required by the cue card

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a confirmed IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic?
Yes. A successful sportsperson you admire is a recurring Part 2 topic across recent IELTS Speaking question banks.

What if I don’t follow sport at all?
Choose any athlete you know a little about, even from a single memorable event, and build the answer around that specific memory.

Can I describe a local or lesser-known athlete instead of a global star?
Yes. A coach or athlete from your own community works just as well, provided you can describe them in detail.