The year is still young but it’s a wonderful one for golden oldies
THE year 2021 is shaping up to be the year of old gold. We are not yet two months in and already it has served up time-turning on a grand scale bytom Brady and James Anderson. Their achievements should have warmed the cockles of fading sportsmen and women everywhere who rage against the dying of the light.who crave one last chance to show they are not yet knacker’s yard fodder.who want to show the kids they can still rock.
Elite sport is designed for those at their athletic peak but skill and knowhow can be made to count double by the masters of their craft.
Brady is so ancient he has a teenage son but at 43 he still stole the Super Bowl show as he took ring No.7, outplaying his 25-year-old rival quarterback Patrick Mahomes for Tampa
Bay last weekend.
He is the oldest American Footballer to play in a Super Bowl, never mind be voted MVP in one, but he was ruthlessly efficient in picking apart the Kansas City Chiefs.
At 38,Anderson should, as a pace bowler, have vacated the stage long ago but it was his dream over which bamboozled India’s batsmen in the opening Test and unlocked the door for England to go 1-0 up in the series.
The reverse swing masterclass was simply bewitching. He has now taken more Test wickets in his 30s than any other cricketer in history.the Peter Pan of Pace has gone into full Benjamin Button mode with better figures in this decade than in his 20s.
From Tampa Bay to Chennai, the Greatest Of All Time klaxons were going off in praise of the pair.
While comparisons across the ages are tricky, comparisons at their ages confirm Brady and Anderson as sportsmen apart.
They have absorbed all the knowledge they have accumulated down the years and repackaged it to keep on improving, even as time drags on.
Their endurance is a testament to the advances in sports science and nutrition which have made it physically possible for them to defy the ticking of the clock, but more so to their drive in wanting to power on with the same commitment as at the start of their careers.
That level of constant desire is given to few athletes.
So if Brady and Anderson have lit a candle for the elder superstars, who else may follow this year?
Roger Federer
and Serena
Williams – both 39 – might give it one last hurrah at Wimbledon in the summer.
They know how to get the job done on grass after all with 15 wins at the All England Club between them.
Cristiano Ronaldo will be a threat at the Euros for Portugal at 36.And if Zlatan
Ibrahimovic fancies a comeback for Sweden he could still do some damage at 39.
How about Lee
Westwood at the
Ryder Cup?
He was set to be an assistant captain atwhistling Straits but winning the Race to Dubai has changed all that. He will be 48 by September.
Who knows, maybe Stephen Hendry’s comeback could end up being a fairy tale at theworld Snooker Championship?
AGOLDEN oldie year might not be restricted to humans. Could Native River win another Gold Cup at Cheltenham? The last 11-year-old to do so was Mandarin in 1962. If the Tokyo Olympics go ahead, Mo Farah will be 38 by the time he races there. Could he rewind the clock and add to his collection of gold?
It isn’t always about winning when you are beating your birth certificate.
Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina will not feature on the podium but she will be 46 when she represents Uzbekistan at what will be her eighth Games.that is quite some achievement.
Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze will be 53 and Ni Xialian, who competes for Luxembourg at table tennis, 58.
There should be a special medal cut – perhaps with large writing on – for these women who have passed the autumn of their careers and are deep into the winter.
For the really venerable Olympians, however, you need to head over to the equestrian centre.
Nick Skelton may have been 54 when he won gold in the team show jumping for Britain at the 2012 Games but Ian Millar was competing for Canada in London aged 73.
Watch your back, Ian, because Japanese dressage rider Hiroshi Hoketsu has you in his sights.
He will be 80 if he competes in what would be his second Tokyo Olympics, having been part of the original in
1964. Sometimes, some people can prove that age really is just a number after all.