Last night the wife and I were watching the Graham Norton show on BBC America. One of his guests was Martina Navratilova. Martina still holds the open era record for most singles titles with 167. She commented that because of changes in today's game no one will ever break her record. She feels that today's players will break down playing on the harder surfaces and with the advanced rackets. True?
It is an interesting thought. I think it has more to do with the mindset of today's athlete though. To break career milestones takes longevity and a single-minded desire to be the best. With the huge amounts of dollars involved in professional sports today how many athletes still have that desire to put their bodies through such training and abuse long term? Once they win enough money and fame how many still are willing to sacrifice everything else to do what is necessary to keep pushing themselves to stay on top long enough to break career records?
Today's athletes do not have any more skill than previous era athletes. The advantage today's athletes have is in technology and training methods. The wild card though is the game changes along with the athletes. Martina is right in that tennis has changed. The rules, scoring and size of the courts are the same. The surfaces of the courts and the rackets have changed along with the size, strength and speed of the athletes. She mentioned how retired players such as John McEnroe would struggle today because his game was more about finesse and today's game is more about power. Every sport tweaks their rules over time for various reasons. That does make it harder to compare athletes across eras. But the best players always rise to the top. That is true in any era. And they will dominate their sport for a period of time. The question though is how long they are willing to stay on top which means doing whatever it takes. I just think today's athletes don't have that all consuming drive to be the best ever. That's what it takes to set all the records...
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today's athletes are too soft. football players quit because of a stubbed toe, or pulled groined. i heard on the radio, some old browns players talking about this, and they said when such a thing happened that they'd just wrap them up and get back out there.
there's no drive. no passion.
as long as they get paid. that is all.
cyclist ride with broken collar bones, broken fingers, major road rash...you don't hear them complain. partly, because they love the sport; partly because they know if they stop racing that they may be out of a job (unless they are high profile guys like lance.)
amitabha...
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