For subscribers
Sporting Life
On the hard, solitary road to glory, athletes need support
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Boxers, golfers and tennis players believe their sport is lonely, but so is the world of the marathoner, who must travel 42km without anyone's help.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Follow topic:
In the cold, white silence of a European winter, the young shooter sits hostage in his hotel room. There’s no TV in his room, no room service available, no language spoken he understands. He’s distressed by his form, has fought with his coach, has no parent to lean on. Lonely and distressed he rips the curtains off their hooks.
Amid the clamouring prayer of the faithful in stadiums, the beseeching of autograph hunters, the shine of the spotlight, sport never looks like what it mostly is.
