Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper whose career spanned from 1979 to 1996 the fastest time in the 100 meters was 9.86 seconds. This past year Kenny Bednarek came in last in the men’s 100 meters with a time of 9.87. Noah Lyles came in first with a time of 9.79 which is about 23 miles an hour if you were in a car. A mind numbing speed when you think about it.
Roger Bannister was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, accomplishing the feat on May 6, 1954 at Oxford University’s Iffley Road Track. His time was 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. While last year Hicham El Guerrouj is the current men’s record holder with his time of 3:43.13.
In 1924 when the marathon was run at the current distance of 26.22 miles the winner at the Olympics (which coincidentally was also held in Paris) was Albin Oskar Stenroos in a time of 02:41:22.600
While Kelvin Kiptum ran the fastest-ever marathon debut at the 2022 Valencia Marathon, becoming only the third man in history to break two hours and two minutes and setting the then fourth-quickest time ever. He followed it up four months later with the second-fastest marathon in history at 2:01:25, 16 seconds outside the world record, at the 2023 London Marathon (WMM). At the 2023 Chicago Marathon six months later in October 2023, he broke the world record by 34 seconds with a time of 2:00:35, a mark ratified on 6 February 2024—five days before his death—by the international track federation World Athletics.
Babe Ruth in 1927 hit a dominant 60 homeruns in a season while Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001.
Phil Espisito in the 1970-71 season scored 76 goals while Wayne Gretzky in the 1981-82 season scored 90 goals.
In the 1960-61 season in basketball Wilt Chamberlain scored a crazy 4029 points in 80 games and no one has come close since. It is a record that has stood for more than 60 years. (Well longer than I have been alive.)
There are the greats in every sport and sometimes they are even referred to as G.O.A.T.’s standing for Greatest of All Time. Sometimes these people transcend their sports, like Katie Ledecky, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods who have achieved status as phenom even without holding best of… records.
With the explosion of ways to watch our favorite teams and players coupled with the energized and immediate information fed to us by announcers and statisticians, we know if we are watching a record breaking performance or not. Sometimes it is a distraction from the elegance and grace of an athletic performance. Watching Michael Jordan go up for a fade away jumper, or Tiger Woods’ creativity in seeing and making a shot no one could imagine, or seeing Katie Ledecky swim past her competitors with the silky glide of a dolphin can never be measured on a stat sheet. Yet in many ways they are far more impressive. Yes, each player’s performance can be measured. There are definite metrics for success but there is so much more. However, as I mentioned in my previous blog, there are intangibles to certain athletes that make them more than there stat sheets record. (See Keeping Score)
There is a price to be paid for this search for superiority. While wondering if the 2 hour marathon will ever happen, I wonder how much physical and emotional damage is being done in that quest.
This first came to my mind while I was sitting courtside at a Chicago Bulls game in 1995. While I was astounded by the freakish size of the basketball players, Scottie Pipen actually shook my hand or should I say shook my forearm since his hand was the size of my entire forearm. I remember looking over to the coach Philip Douglas Jackson. He was in a previous life a basketball player as a power forward, winning championships with the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. He is regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, Jackson was the head coach of the Chicago Bulls from 1989 to 1998, leading them to six NBA championships. And I looked over and he walks with the gate of a man who has been through a few battles in his life. The position of power forward often leads to imposing your physical size on others of similar build. That leaves its mark. Now in the less physical role of coach, he walks bent over with a slight limp. It appears as though he is in pain with every step.
In football the equipment is getting revised with new helmets to help avoid traumatic brain injury and better protective pads and supports. In basketball and tennis compression sleeves and ankle and knee braces abound. In baseball there are sliding gloves, elbow pads to protect fingers and limbs. And hockey is now adding neck guards after there have been fatal injuries on the ice.
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals with 23. Speaking about his struggles with depression, MIchael Phelps commented “I can speak from an athlete perspective of being a male and an athlete. If I was to speak up during my career, I would feel like it would be a sign of weakness…and we’re giving our competitors that edge, and in sports or basically kind of in battle, it’s like you can’t give your competitors that edge.”
Sometimes the anxiety is on full display and sometimes the struggle is invisible to the spectator. We watch as the strongest and the fastest and the most agile breakdown crying whether in triumph or defeat. We watch baseball players stepping up to the plate and deeply exhale. The empath recognizes the incredible stress these people live under day in and day out. You don’t need to feel what the players as feeling when it spills over and athletes begin to fight. The most memorable for me was “in the closing seconds of the Knicks’ Game 4 win, which tied the best-of-five series at two games apiece, Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning got tangled up near the baseline. The former Hornets teammates fired punches at each other, and Charles Oakley jumped in front of Mourning to stop the brawl.
But Oakley wasn’t the only person attempting to (sort of) play peacemaker. Van Gundy flew off the sideline and tried to grab Mourning. As he fell to the ground, Van Gundy latched onto Mourning’s leg and went for a ride.” (click here for the entire article)
It is scary to watch two men Alonso Mourning who was 6”10 and 261 pounds and Larry Johnson who was 6”7 and 235 pounds, followed by their teammates of comparable size get into a fight. It was comical to see the small Jeff Van Gundy, he was 5”9 and probably 170 pounds at the time, being dragged around until you realized Van Gundy could get squashed and no one would notice. Van Gundy was trying to protect his players but who was watching out for him?
About the book Coach Phil Jackson wrote entitled Sacred Hoops the blurb explains, “Eleven years ago, when Phil Jackson first wrote these words in Sacred Hoops, he was the triumphant head coach of the Chicago Bulls, known for his Zen approach to the game. He hadn’t yet moved to the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he would bring his total to an astounding nine NBA titles. In his thought-provoking memoir, he revealed how he directs his players to act with a clear mind–not thinking, just doing; to respect the enemy and be aggressive without anger or violence; to live in the moment and stay calmly focused in the midst of chaos; to put the “me” in service of the “we” — all lessons applicable to any person’s life, not just a professional basketball player’s.”
Now apply it to your life. How are you protecting yourself? How are you making sure you get the attention you need?