No country(or sport) for old men

Posted July 30th, 2010 by wilson

Around this time a year ago, I wrote a piece about how age is becoming irrelevant in many of today’s sport, and how many of our current sports heroes aren’t exactly young(at least by today’s highly youth-centric standards).

This year however, seemingly presents a different story.

Roger Federer staged a surprising comeback last year(after a forgettable 2008), winning two of the four Opens, and finally clinching the French, the sole missing hardware in his collection. This year however, he is on freefall again. He failed to make it to the semifinals of the Wimbledon and the French Open, both of which his younger rival Nadal won.

Lance Armstrong finished a very respectable third in the TDF last year, after which Radioshack built a team centered around him. Armstrong did not even make it to the Top 10 this year, although his team did finish first. He won’t be back next year.

Michael Schumacher wasn’t on the F1 scene yet last year. His return to the race track this season certainly raised hopes which were dashed early on. F1 greatness, of course, is a combination of driving and engineering mastery - a great driver couldn’t win without a great car. While Schumacher shouldn’t be blamed for Mercedes GP’s shortcomings, it is still disappointing to note that he has consistently finished behind the other Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg.

A year certainly doesn’t make a career - with the exception of Armstrong, these guys would be back next season or next year(and who knows, Federer could still win the 2010 US Open). Nevertheless, as early as now I guess we could say that 2010 wasn’t exactly a good year for (relatively)old men.

Tags: Lance Armstrong, Michael Schumacher, Roger Federer, Tour de France