9:50am Friday 24th October 2008
By Jo Rooney
Age is only a number, they say, but I was left feeling every one of my 38 years last week after missing out on selection for my football team; no room for me, it seemed, among the 16-year-olds who have graduated through the ranks this season.
Sitting at work on a gloomy Monday morning, I pondered whether now was the time to retire gracefully and “move upstairs” as one of my colleagues suggested.
But, suddenly, a flash of inspiration – news that 44-year-old Ranelagh Harrier Daryl McDonald had won his first veterans’ event, the Surrey 10km championship in Richmond Park on Sunday, having finally acknowledged four years after turning 40 that acting your age does not mean losing your competitive streak.
It got me thinking about other golden oldies who have not let the odd grey hair get in the way of their sporting ambitions. I came up with these 10 (in no particular order) before I was interrupted by a call telling me I’d won my place back for Sunday’s game – off to the training track for me, then… Martina Navratilova: The greatest female tennis player of all time won 18 Grand Slam singles titles and many more in doubles and mixed doubles, and boasts longevity as well as brilliance, claiming her final crown – the US Open mixed doubles in 2006 with Bob Bryan – at the age of 49.
Dino Zoff: Senior citizens in goal are not that unusual, even in international teams, but how many have captained their country to World Cup glory, as the Italian did in 1982 as a spritely 40-year-old?
Michael Jordan: Some people might have thought three successive NBA titles with Chicago, a season of minor league baseball and a return for three more championship triumphs with the Bulls would be enough. But not His Airness, who came out of retirement for a second time to play for Washington Wizards and was still treading the boards two seasons later, having turned 40.
George Foreman: Not only did the American become world heavyweight champion aged 45 in 1994, he has put his name to a range of fat-busting health grills to ensure we are all lean, mean, fighting machines like he was when he won his first world title in 1973 against Joe Frazier.
Teddy Sheringham: Being relegated from the Championship with Colchester a month after his 42nd birthday hardly seems a fitting farewell for the man who inspired Manchester United’s dramatic Champions League victory in 1999, but I’m sure he’ll get over it.
Greg Norman: Golf is often more brain than brawn but my 53-year-old Australian compatriot was still defying father time when he started day four of this year’s British Open as overnight leader before choking, as he is wont to do, finishing third.
Mark Foster: At 38, Team GB’s flag bearer in Bejing was 24 years older than the squad’s youngest member, diver Tom Daley.
Mark Ramprakash: Surrey’s run machine was nudging 40 when he passed 2,000 runs in the 2006 season, and repeated the dose a year later. And this season, after a bit of a stutter, he notched his 100th first-class ton. He can dance a bit, too.
Roger Milla: Speaking of fancy feet, Cameroon’s 38-year-old star of the World Cup in 1990 was very comfortable getting jiggy with corner flags.
Dean Windass: A Premier League swansong is just reward for the man who took Hull City into dreamland with his spectacular goal against Bristol City at Wembley. He turns 40 in April.
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