Sports fans are in for a magnificent summer of action as the planet’s top stars line up in their chosen fields to do battle against each other, themselves, and the elements.
Euro 2016 is already under way and while it hasn’t set the heather ablaze yet, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are all capable of raising the bar to heights of excellence.
In the weeks ahead, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, The Open and the Olympics will all get the pulses racing and each of them will make the harshest and most incessant of demands on the eventual winners.
Andy Murray hooking up again with Ivan Lendl as his coach gives cause for optimism, but whoever triumphs on Centre Court, the fortnight will be a test of physical and mental resilience which ensures only the most capable, talented and hard working will progress to victory.
The strength of mind and physical fitness required amid draining matches sometimes stretching to four hours or more, and the incessant wear and tear on battle weary limbs hauled screaming in protest around a tennis court, exhausts me just thinking about it.
Meantime, the men who some people claim are the hardiest sports stars of them all will be spinning and climbing round the highways, byways and mountainous peaks of France, in a route covering twenty one stages and three and a half thousand kilometres.
In a gruelling test of courage, climbing ability, speed, stamina, and mental fortitude, particularly on descents round hairpin bends at forty miles per hour, the Tour makes demands on riders which would turn the legs of the average weekend cyclist to jelly.
The 145th open at Royal Troon may not test golfers in the same brutal physical way as tennis or cycling, but the mental fortitude and concentration level for every shot is a lead weight.
One momentary lapse and the mind games start to set the player against himself. No matter how strong a character, huge self belief and mental reserves are required when wind and rain can change destiny within the instant, and unhinge the greatest of golfers in the time it takes to mark a scorecard.
In the 306 events in the 28 sports in the Olympics in August, the same dynamics will be in play.
Everything is compounded by the fact that often only a razor blade separates many of the athletes and competitors in terms of ability.
That’s why an extra edge is vital.
The extra few hours spent in the gym, on the rollers, or on the practice range can all mean the difference between ultimate success and failure on the court, road or course.
The old adage, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’, is nowhere more starkly in evidence than in top level sport. The days when sheer talent alone was sufficient to ensure victory have long since gone.
Improved dietary and scientific knowledge, allied to increasingly available and sophisticated technical analysis, has narrowed the gap between the great and the simply very good, to the point where hard work can beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard enough.
