Fair Play: The real No. 1 returns
I SAY it’s the season for comebacks.
Save for the aborted return of Michael Schumacher and the circus regarding Diego Maradona, two other stars have made successful returns to their sports.
Lance Armstrong finished third in his first Tour de France this year, while Kim Clijsters won the US Open in just her third tournament back on tour.
Justin Henin, who retired at No. 1 last year, is set to join the fray and will make her comeback in the Australian Open next year.
I hope she avoids the fate of Schumacher and Maradona.
Schumacher announced his return to F1, only to be KOed by a neck injury. Maradona is back in Argentina’s national team, this time as a coach. But the player who is treated as a god in his country is being vilified for the team’s woeful showing.
Some say Henin should have stayed retired to preserve her legacy.
But sports stars are a unique bunch, they retire at that age when the rest of the population are just on the upswing of their careers, and having nothing to do after retirement may have prodded the comeback.
I read a comment in a blog somewhere that Henin would have a hard time in her return, since the women’s game is now different and that there are a lot of rising stars.
Well, I think they’re wrong. The women’s game still hasn’t changed. It’s still about skills or beauty.
To get famous, you have to be really good, or really beautiful.
As to whether she will have a difficult time , well, Henin has always defied the odds.
At 5’6,” and a tad under 126 pounds—and that’s being generous—she shouldn’t be a world-class athlete at all. Yet she’s overpowering the Williamses, the Sharapovas in the Tour.
Despite her small frame, Henin won seven grand slams, proving that champions aren’t born, they are made.
Doing it again, merely a brief 16 months after calling it quits, should be just like riding a bike.
But should she be doing it at all?
Why shouldn’t she?
There are stars who should have stayed retired—most ex-champ boxers come to mind—and stars who shouldn’t—Henin, Schumacher and Bjorn Borg.
If Michael Jordan didn’t end his first retirement, we wouldn’t have seen the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat; why shouldn’t we give Henin her chance?
Besides, Henin gives us hope.
If a petite girl like her could have what experts say the best backhand in tennis—men’s tour included—well, Pinoys have a chance.
Not only does Henin epitomize the “impossible is nothing,” slogan, she even coined it.
She used the term to describe her career and one enterprising marketing guy from Adidas got wind of it and started a marketing blitz based on her words.
Pundits say that a lot of up-and-coming pros are cropping up in the women’s tour, and Henin would have to pass through them to reclaim her spot.
Maybe, the pundits got it wrong.
Maybe these girls are in the limelight because they didn’t have to pass through Henin, because, until now, despite Dinara Safina being the No. 1 in the women’s tour, people are still arguing about the “real No. 1.”
When Henin retired, girls like Ana Ivanovic, Safina, Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic took over the No. 1 spot, but never held it for long.
Safina is the current No. 1, while Williams thinks she’s the real No. 1.
Maybe, when Henin returns, she’ll end the argument.
Save for the aborted return of Michael Schumacher and the circus regarding Diego Maradona, two other stars have made successful returns to their sports.
Lance Armstrong finished third in his first Tour de France this year, while Kim Clijsters won the US Open in just her third tournament back on tour.
Justin Henin, who retired at No. 1 last year, is set to join the fray and will make her comeback in the Australian Open next year.
I hope she avoids the fate of Schumacher and Maradona.
Schumacher announced his return to F1, only to be KOed by a neck injury. Maradona is back in Argentina’s national team, this time as a coach. But the player who is treated as a god in his country is being vilified for the team’s woeful showing.
Some say Henin should have stayed retired to preserve her legacy.
But sports stars are a unique bunch, they retire at that age when the rest of the population are just on the upswing of their careers, and having nothing to do after retirement may have prodded the comeback.
I read a comment in a blog somewhere that Henin would have a hard time in her return, since the women’s game is now different and that there are a lot of rising stars.
Well, I think they’re wrong. The women’s game still hasn’t changed. It’s still about skills or beauty.
To get famous, you have to be really good, or really beautiful.
As to whether she will have a difficult time , well, Henin has always defied the odds.
At 5’6,” and a tad under 126 pounds—and that’s being generous—she shouldn’t be a world-class athlete at all. Yet she’s overpowering the Williamses, the Sharapovas in the Tour.
Despite her small frame, Henin won seven grand slams, proving that champions aren’t born, they are made.
Doing it again, merely a brief 16 months after calling it quits, should be just like riding a bike.
But should she be doing it at all?
Why shouldn’t she?
There are stars who should have stayed retired—most ex-champ boxers come to mind—and stars who shouldn’t—Henin, Schumacher and Bjorn Borg.
If Michael Jordan didn’t end his first retirement, we wouldn’t have seen the Chicago Bulls’ second three-peat; why shouldn’t we give Henin her chance?
Besides, Henin gives us hope.
If a petite girl like her could have what experts say the best backhand in tennis—men’s tour included—well, Pinoys have a chance.
Not only does Henin epitomize the “impossible is nothing,” slogan, she even coined it.
She used the term to describe her career and one enterprising marketing guy from Adidas got wind of it and started a marketing blitz based on her words.
Pundits say that a lot of up-and-coming pros are cropping up in the women’s tour, and Henin would have to pass through them to reclaim her spot.
Maybe, the pundits got it wrong.
Maybe these girls are in the limelight because they didn’t have to pass through Henin, because, until now, despite Dinara Safina being the No. 1 in the women’s tour, people are still arguing about the “real No. 1.”
When Henin retired, girls like Ana Ivanovic, Safina, Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic took over the No. 1 spot, but never held it for long.
Safina is the current No. 1, while Williams thinks she’s the real No. 1.
Maybe, when Henin returns, she’ll end the argument.
Comments