Celebrating Excellence and using it as Inspiration

For sport around the globe the last week has been incredible.

First of all the retirement on Roger Federer at 41 years of age and with 20 grand slam singles titles in his resume. A few years back (2003) I was wandering in Melbourne and as I walked past the gate to the Rod Laver Arena the billboard said, “Davis Cup – Roger Federer vs Mark Philippoussis and Marc Rosset vs Leighton Hewitt.” I checked my watch and they were playing that afternoon/evening. I checked at the box office and bought one of the four remaining tickets for this Davis Cup clash. Davis Cup is known for the explosive parochialism of the crowds. Federer was so good, truly a class above, that when he had demolished Philippoussis, in straight sets, he received a standing ovation. Truly a sporting GREAT and seeing Borg and McEnroe farewelling him as the greatest a few days back was special.

Yesterday in Wollongong was the men’s race at the world road cycling championships. Again I have been lucky to attend one of the events (Richmond, Virginia in 2015) along with 650,000 others. The world champs is a grueling one day event of over 260km – ridden in big laps that drives everything to a frenzy over the six hours it takes. It is never slow or easy and every nation’s team is strategizing the whole day through. A twenty-two year old from Belgium, Remco Evenepoel, rode away from the remarkable field of athletes to ride most of the last thirty kilometers on his own and win this highly prestigious race. Incredible. Our media chose to concentrate on another cyclist being arrested when after hours of being disturbed the night before the race by kids banging on his door – he told them to shove-off and push them on their way. The race took over six hours and these people are stunning examples of what humans can do.

As that race was finishing in Australia the Berlin marathon was starting with over 45,000 runners from 120 countries and a million spectators. In terms of a winner all interest was in 37 year old Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya. His resume is the running equivalent of Federer’s tennis one. Yesterday he ran so superbly that for the first 25km he was tracking towards a sub-2 hour certified marathon (he has bettered that time in a tailored time-trial). In the last 17km he slowed a tiny amount but still set a new world record of 2:01.09 – and managed to look like he been up the driveway to check the mail.

New Zealand has adopted a fortress mentality with our response to covid and become very introvert. It is good to know that the world has moved on and great people have gone back to doing extraordinary things.

So – as you spend your day mourning the loss of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. If you want a pick-me-up please look up those three events above.