Why are so many Olympic champs born on March 23?
IF YOU want your child to be an Olympic champion, it appears their chances of winning gold are significantly improved if they are born on March 23.
Track cyclist Jason Kenny was born on that day, as were rower Sir Steve Redgrave, middle-distance runner Mo Farah and cyclist Sir Chris Hoy. The quartet have won an incredible 20 Olympic gold medals between them.
Other famous sportsmen to share March 23 as a birthday include the first sub-fourminute miler Sir Roger Bannister, world champion boxer Joe Calzaghe and former England cricket captain Mike Atherton.
Exactly why March 23 is such a fortuitous day is not clear.
Those who believe the Zodiac determines our fates will note that March 23 makes the athletes Aries, the ram – a dominant and powerful sign.
Scientific research, on the other hand, is not so clear why March should favour athletes.
Studies have found that the month a baby is born can affect their educational life.
Children born in July or August are believed to under-achieve both in sport and general education for much of their school lives. Some mothers have complained that children who have their fourth birthdays before joining school in September can find themselves the youngest and smallest in a school.
Whereas children born nearer to September – who are older than their peers when they enrol for school – are nearly three times as likely to be in the top stream compared to those born in the following August.
Perhaps being born in late March aids the future star athlete by placing the child in the middle of their year. This would stop them from coasting on superior physical development, while at the same time they are not so underdeveloped physically as to get disheartened by being bullied on the pitch.
Famous events which have occurred on March 23 include the first successful photograph of the Moon taken in 1840; polar explorer Ernest Shackleton finding the magnetic South Pole in 1909 and Pakistan declaring independence in 1956.
In 1972, the late stuntman Evel Knievel broke 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars on a motorbike, and in 2001 Russia’s orbiting Mir space station plunged into the South Pacific.
If you want to give your child the Olympic-winning birthday of March 23, the date for conception is advised to be June 29.