The Gold-plated Laurel, Olympic Tennis, and The Gold Medal

Written by: Staff on 2nd August 2012

The Gold-plated Laurel, Olympic Tennis, and The Gold Medal

epa03336401 Rebecca Soni of the US celebrates with her gold medal on the medal stand after the Women's 200m Breaststroke during the London 2012 Olympic Games Swimming competition, London, Britain, 02 August 2012. EPA/BARBARA WALTON |

By: Craig Cignarelli

Before the next Olympic Games, sixteen slams will pass. Over that span, the world’s elite players will fall back upon individual pursuits and personal motives to battle their adversaries. They’ll build arduous schedules around Masters Series and Premier events in hopes of curtailing injury and properly preparing for the majors’ stages. They’ll consult with physios and agents and managers and personal coaches and tour supervisors and sponsors as they navigate their way through the maelstrom of professional tennis. In some Third World nation they might even surrender a half-assed effort toward victory in order to find a free day to take that Yelp-recommended tour of the inner continent. But not this fortnight.

This week brings together the best athletes in the world. This week is not about rankings or financial gain or hoisting some decades-old trophy, but rather, egocentric excellence and national pride. Olympic history dates back two millennia to the ancient Greeks who staged a sporting contest in the town of Olympia. The competition attracted Greece’s greatest athletes to compete in events such as running, discus throwing, wrestling, boxing and chariot racing. For men only – women weren’t even allowed to watch – each competitor highlighted his physique with olive oil and then competed in the nude – this might work with today’s beach volleyballers and track folk, but, frankly, there’s a few shot-putters and weightlifters whose nakedness could cause some serious digestive issues. Held until 389 A.D., when Roman Emperor Theodore I the Great considered them a threat to Christianity and Christian morality and therefore outlawed them, the modern games returned to Athens in 1896.

And so now we hoist and shift our eyes toward Wimbledon, where 128 competitors compete for coffee-cup-cover sized medals worth < first round prize money at any tour event. For Roger, it would fulfill the only omission from a teeming trophy case. For Djokovic and Azarenka, the gold-plated laurel would be a source of national pride. To this end, the players forego the US OPEN run’s initial weeks and suffer half-empty stands, fully aware that the archery and cycling and synchronized swimming sites are having to cattle-prod audiences into tighter quarters to shrink the queues. And yet, all of the top players are here, representing their nations, the weight of an aspiring citizenry behind every stroke, the appellation of champion brimming inside their hearts, hoping to claim their place in the pantheon of Olympic history. For now, we watch the telescoping draws, the falling flags, the spent vanquished heaving upon the grass like suffocating fish. And we await our Olympic champion. Strike well, lads. Strike well….

Topics: British tennis news, London Olympics, London tennis news, Max Mirnyi, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis News, Victoria Azarenka