โMy parents were very scared. They were very worried. Mum was crying a lot.ย โSome of them said, โNo, you have to stop... there is no way you can be a professional athlete with this kind of illness. (Type 1 Diabetes).There is no way you can play such a hard physical sportโย โฆThis is what really stuck in my mind, made me quite upset, to be honestโ
Zverev has won a title at every single level of big events. One of the most inspiring stories in tennis โค๏ธ
Alexander Zverev is living on needles for the last 25 years...taking Insulin everyday since age 4.
Today at 29, he became a GRAND SLAM CHAMPION. Overcame a life nemisis.
Huge Inspiration to children with diabetes. He runs a foundation for the same ๐
Rafa cannot be an inspiration. And I mean that seriously.
Watched the RAFA series on Netflix with my daughters this week. The 9 year old was okay and maybe even excited. The five-year-old had to be - let's say - firmly encouraged to stay seated.
I kept pausing to tell them where I was when some of these matches happened. The 2008 Wimbledon final - Nadal winning his first on grass, at dusk, in what many still call the greatest match ever played. The 2012 epic, which for a lot of people remains the most complete - for me a complete heartbreak. The 2022 comeback - a man who had been told his foot condition might end his career after his first few grand slams, winning not only his 14th Roland Garros but his second AO.
Each of those matches is etched somewhere specific in my memory. The emotions came back watching the documentary like they hadn't gone anywhere.
My daughters of course couldn't relate. They will grow up creating their own moments and their own memories. I hope sport is part of that and maybe even their own matches, who knows.
But I kept coming back to the thought I mentioned at the beginning as I watched the series.
Rafa cannot be an inspiration.
Nobody can look at what he did - the physical punishment, the sheer doggedness, the way he kept coming back when his own body was the opponent - and think: I can do that. He belongs to a handful of people across all of human history, in sport or any other field, who achieved what they achieved.
Holding him up as a template is almost unfair to the rest of us.
But here is what the documentary does show: At the absolute pinnacle of human achievement, he felt self-doubt. He wanted to give up. He lost hope. He questioned himself in ways that will feel familiar to anyone who has ever tried to build something or push through something hard.
And that is the more honest inspiration.
Court Philippe-Chatrier has the words engraved: "Victory belongs to the most tenacious." But the tenacity that matters to most of us isn't the tenacity to win the tournament. It's the tenacity to win your own inner doubts. To show up when everything in you is arguing for staying put.
Showing up isn't just how you succeed. Showing up is the success.
My daughters will figure that out in their own way, in their own time. I just hope they have their own version of those matches to look back on when they need reminding.
Well done Netflix. Made me cry.