Sporting Life
Run, Lions, run: The effort’s been great. Now, keep on grinding
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Effort isn’t just running, tackling, falling, rising, it’s also the impressive Lions being disciplined in everything they do.
PHOTO: AFP
Rafael Nadal wasn’t some genetically modified species of one, or ordained by some tennis-loving God to become a ball-chasing lunatic who made rivals tremble. No, Rafa was a construction, a human built from suffering, learning gradually how to recite daily the words to the hymn of effort.
In a TED Talk in 2018, Toni Nadal, uncle and coach, paced the stage and told Rafa stories. Once his nephew didn’t play to his standard in Australia and told him it was too hot. Toni was unimpressed. “It seems it was hot only on one half of the court.” His point was sport had no place for excuses.
