Part two of this series sees us branch out into three different sports from all around the world in search of unlikely success stories.
Part one focused on Australians Steven Bradbury (speed skating) and Matt Priddis (AFL), and finished up with Lionel Messi (football) as icons for overcoming the odds.
The common factor that ran through the former featured athletes is their determination, dedication and years of hard work.
Their success may be in part due to a fortunate series of events (Messi’s trial with Barcelona, Nat Fyfe’s Brownlow ineligibility, and Steven Bradbury pulling the first ever recorded Bradbury to win Olympic gold) and natural ability, but you simply cannot succeed on their levels without the drive these athletes have.
The following athletes are cut from the same cloth.
Labeled as ‘freaks of nature’, ‘superhuman’ and ‘special talents’ (which they might indeed be, depending on your definitions), these three sportsmen and women display the most important quality needed to succeed; the discipline to work hard, for a long time, with a lot of barriers to overcome.
Tom Dempsey
I always cry during special sporting moments. I cried when Matthew Hayden hit the winning runs in the ’06/’07 Ashes series, and lumbered down the pitch to embrace his long-time opening partner Justin Langer.
Watching Roger Federer break down after losing to Rafael Nadal in the final of the 2009 Australian Open had me sobbing pathetically.
Blame the chick flicks I’m forced (not really) to watch, or my sensitive soul, but I believe there’s a fifth emotion in the male emotive spectrum when it comes to these moments: hunger (desire), happy, angry, sleepy, and sports.
My sports emotion went into overdrive reading about Tom Dempsey.
The NFL kicker played for a whole host of franchises between 1969 and 1979, but is best known for two things.
First, the incredible 63-yard field goal he slotted to gift the New Orleans Saints a win against the Detroit Lions in 1970.
Secondly, Tom Dempsey had no fingers on his right hand, and no toes on his right foot.
I mean, really. Come on.
His 63-yard field goal is the longest in NFL history, and he did it with no toes.
His boot had been modified; flat at the front, almost squared off completely.
His kicking technique? also modified. Instead of using the side-foot technique common to most football codes, Dempsey perfected the toe-poke. Only, not a toe-poke. I don’t even know what to call it.
He bore being dealt a rough hand with great humour, too. When quizzed as to whether his flat-front boot gave him an unfair advantage by a journo, he replied, “Unfair eh? How ’bout you try kickin’ a 63 yard field goal to win it with two seconds left an’ yer wearin’ a square shoe, oh, yeah and no toes either.”
Steve Smith
For mine, Steve Smith, along with Phil Hughes, embodies the topsy-turvy selection process that the ACB seems intent on maintaining.
It’s taken Smith nearly four years to play 20 Tests, and now he’s being touted as the next Test captain. His story is a lesson in battling adversity, and a baffling one at that.
Smith’s Test debut came in mid-2010 at age 21. He played five Tests over the next six months, but was then dropped due to poor results with a meagre batting average of 23.37 and bowling figures of 3/153 overall in 2010.
You would have been forgiven for assuming you’d seen the last of just another flash-in-the-pan Aussie up-and-comer.
Two-and-a-half years later though, he returned against India, and has steadily improved with each outing. In the most recent Ashes series, he ground out two centuries, both very important ones, and most recently against the Proteas, the best bowling attack in world cricket, he averaged 67 for the series.
Calls for Smith to assume captaincy when Michael Clarke retires in the near future have a lot of merit. At 25, Smith has already skippered the Sydney Sixers in the BBL, and the NSW Blues in Shield and One-day matches.
His presence has not yet caused any unrest, on the field or off (I’m looking at you, David Warner), and in the months or years leading up to Pup’s retirement, Smith will have a lot of time to pick his wise old brains.
It may be a big ask of the New South Welshman, whose batting technique has been likened to a cat on a hot tin roof. He is still relatively inexperienced, true, but in fighting his way back into the national team.
Moreover, he has shown he has the mettle to overcome hurdles on his path to a successful cricketing career.
Monica Seles
The case of Monica Seles is a very different tale from the aforementioned athletes, in that she surprised nobody by succeeding.
Yugoslav-born Seles became the youngest-ever French Open champion in 1990 at the age of 16. Before she was 20, she had won eight Grand Slam singles titles, and ended the 1991 and 1992 seasons as World Number 1.
On April 30, 1993, following a string of impressive title-winning performances, Seles was the victim of one of the most well-known violent attacks on a sports-person in history.
In a quarter-final match in Hamburg, Seles was stabbed between the shoulder blades during a break in games by German Günter Parche, an obsessive Steffi Graf fan. Parche burst from the crowd wielding a boning knife, and stabbed at the unsuspecting champion.
The wound was only 1.5cm deep, but if you’ll forgive the cliché, the psychological wound was much, much deeper.
It took Seles two years to return to the tour. She never returned to play in Germany, perhaps fearful or perhaps disappointed at the lack of legal action exercised by the German judicial system against her attacker, who spent no time in prison on the grounds of mental instability.
What is surprising about the tale of Monica Seles is the manner and success of her return to professional tennis.
Her return to the tour in August 1995 was met by admiration, perhaps rooted in sympathy, but heart-warming nonetheless. Seles won her comeback tournament, the Canadian Open, but lost the final of its big sister tournament, the US Open, the next month.
From this, she lifted. Seles won her ninth and final Grand Slam title, beating Anke Huber in the final of the 1996 Australian Open.
While she had a string of notable finishes, she never reaches those heights again.
However, what Seles achieved during her 15-year career is astonishing, especially post-comeback. She holds two records to this day: Youngest ever French Open Champion (16 years old), and simultaneous holder of three consecutive Australian Open and French Open titles (1990-1993).
As I mentioned earlier, Seles surprised nobody by succeeding in her early days. Succeeding post-comeback though, that’s something pretty special.
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