Touching the Heart

David Miller

Description

After surviving a near-fatal scalding aged three, David Miller's life incentives emerged through involvement and achievement in a range of sports, nearing amateur international level in football and athletics. But then, needing employment, he retired at 22 to enter sports journalism. Having written on 30 sports from 120 countries for four national newspapers, Miller is perfectly placed to analyse and explain what drives those who excel in sport. This anthology of 50 epic performers provides a mirror of the emotions and commitment that drive the imagination of the many and the ambitions of the elite. From the unself-conscious self-discipline of Jesse Owens, Stanley Matthews, Jahangir Khan, Torvill and Dean and Steve Redgrave, to the fundamental loneliness and insecurity that galvanises spontaneous exhibitionists such as Jack Johnson, George Best and Alex Higgins, Miller uncovers what makes these great athletes and sports stars tick.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 25 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801500418
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2021
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
David Miller, 2021
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Print ISBN 9781801500128
eBook ISBN 9781801500418
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Contents
Foreword
Preface
Chapter One: Discovering a Sporting Life
Chapter Two: Modern Maestros
Lionel Messi
Jessica Ennis-Hill
Lewis Hamilton
Lillian Board
Chapter Three: Setting The Tone
Jack Johnson
Jim Thorpe
Mildred (Babe) Didrikson
Jesse Owens
Winifred Brown
Joe Louis
Chapter Four: Post-War Awakening
Fanny Blankers-Koen
Emil Z topek
Stanley Matthews
Lew Hoad
John Charles
Alfredo Di St fano
Chapter Five: Television Expansion
Maria Bueno
Bobby Charlton
Jim Baxter
George Best
Kipchoge Kip Keino
Chapter Six: International Extravagance
Pel
Mary Peters
Olga Korbut
Alex Higgins
Filbert Bayi
Johan Cruyff
Arthur Ashe
Muhammad Ali
Billie Jean King
Chapter Seven: Escalation
Brasher s London Marathon
Jahangir Khan
John Bertrand
Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean
Virginia Leng
Sebastian Coe
Seve Ballesteros
Diego Maradona
Chapter Eight: Century s Climax
Fred Couples
David Gower
Curtly Ambrose
Oksana Baiul
Ayrton Senna
Jonah Lomu
Josia Thugwane
Chapter Nine: Contemporary
Cathy Freeman
Steve Redgrave
Jonny Wilkinson
Usain Bolt
Roger Federer
Marcus Rashford
Postscript
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Photos
FOREWORD
MARCUS RASHFORD MBE
I m incredibly proud to call myself a footballer, to call football my profession. That round ball is one of the most consistent realities I ve ever enjoyed in my life. That one opportunity I ve found which offered me purpose, structure, discipline: all vital for a child who grew up in what might be referred to as an under-privileged community. That ball provided an avenue out of difficulty, not just for me, but my family too.
For many, football is the most common language we all can speak. It has the ability to bring people from all walks of life together as one. I have been privileged enough to experience the broadest available geography lesson through my professional football career: visiting places I couldn t have ever imagined. I ve met people from different cultures, races and religions, learnt something different from every one of them. The game has this rare ability to bring people together without the need to say a word. Thereby, football offers a sense of belonging.
I ve stood on a seat at the Stretford End of Old Trafford as a child, trying my best to see the fullest of the action. Absorbing every moment, that feeling of unity and freedom which is so difficult to recreate elsewhere. In that stadium, alongside 74,000 other emotional fans, I felt part of something special. Today I still feel that, but it has become a sense of pride, able to play an active role in that collective passion, that mutual investment of commitment and community.
Sport, and football in particular, is something spontaneous. Success is built from mistakes, it s adventurous: more importantly, it s togetherness . Sport teaches us how to handle success, to handle failure. Sport can fill a void in us that might be blind to the masses. It s our escape, our common language, belonging.
Sport has also offered me a voice, a platform where that voice can be heard, which speaks for many who are speaking but not being heard. Sport has the power to influence positive change, truly a force to be reckoned with in society at large, especially for deprived children. Sport is my everything. My identity. My forever story. The remorse will remain from that missed penalty for England against Italy, letting everyone down. I long to compensate by helping win the World Cup once more in 2022.
With his seven decades experience in sport, from 12-year-old inter-county schools XI, internationally respected David Miller illustrates just why sport does indeed matter to all of us.
PREFACE
Success? Enduring repeated failure, maintaining enthusiasm .
Winston Churchill
As political frictions rupture global equilibrium in China, Hong Kong, North Korea, Myanmar, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Ethiopia, Belarus, Brazil, Mexico, the USA and elsewhere, and COVID-19 has ravaged every nation, sport - not only professional events but the many millions who enjoy, and need, leisure expression - has been repressed.
Yet the truth is that one of the prime iniquities of the 20th century, South Africa s apartheid regime, was driven towards resolution partially on account of the influence of the Olympic Games. As a journalist for The Times , I closely followed the negotiations, from 1989-91, by the IOC s special Apartheid Commission, appointed by then-president Juan Antonio Samaranch, to achieve South Africa s return to the Olympic arena in 1992 after an exclusion of 28 years - a springboard towards a free democracy. At the heart of this political jigsaw were clandestine meetings with Nelson Mandela, released from Robben Island prison after 27 years, dehumanising for an African National Congress rebel. I was there on the occasion of strategic deliberations in Ulundi, Kwazulu, as the tide of social revolution utilised the catalyst of sport.
It was a privileged private moment when, on an afternoon in Johannesburg in 1995, as South Africa were about to meet New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup Final, I was introduced to President Mandela by Joe Pamensky, president of South Africa s by now multi-racial cricket union. In the briefest informal conversation, the transformative national leader elected the previous year confided, I am hopeful that today will be remembered as a landmark in our new liberated nation. Later, presentation of the trophy to Francois Pienaar - once an emblematic white, now converted democrat - was confirmation. My rollercoaster journey through countless stadia, embassies and conferences has involved me in many stories, many exchanges with notable leaders reflecting on the relevance of sport.
Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa 1994-99, Nobel Peace Prize winner 1993, in celebration of South Africa s hosting of the Rugby Union World Cup 1995 and prospective FIFA s World Cup 2010:
Sport has the power to change the world the power to inspire. It has the momentum to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more influential than governments in breaking down racial barriers.
Thomas Bach, ninth president of the International Olympic Committee, maintaining the IOC s global cache, upholding Tokyo s postponed Olympic Games:
Athletes personify how sport touches our hearts. Lofty pinnacles, application, emotion, their joy, their tears - as in the Olympic Games. The beauty of sport is its universality: humanity shares its emotions, sport transcending all boundaries. Current extraordinary times have revealed that the role of sport has never been more important. As we grapple with a health crisis, and divisions within and among nations widen, sport offers hope, individually and collectively. Sport is a low-cost, high-impact opportunity assisting all countries, rich or poor, in reaching long-term objectives, and sustaining health. The Olympic Games are the only event that embraces the world in peaceful competition. When all 206 NOCs and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team gather, this ignites a message of shared diversity. Athletes reveal the values of excellence, friendship, respect and solidarity: through competitors, simultaneously coexisting under one roof, free of discrimination, bound by the same rules regardless of social background, gender, religion or political belief. All are equal. Sport reminds us that co-ordinated humanity can be more coherent than all the forces which emerge dividing us.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu Freedom Party chief, whose recognition of the impetus generated by sport was emphatic:
Sport will hasten the process, and the progress, of rationalisation. Sport is a tool for change, an example to other cultures, for sport is as much a way of life for South African blacks as for South African whites. Sport coaches people for higher office, and does so in such a way that the checks and balances which are there in democracy are made to work because people want them to work. There is so much aggression in South Africa, as a consequence of many decades of racist rule, that anything that will help turn political competition into political co-operation is vitally needed. The lesson sport has for us is that competition is only permissible when it is played within the rules. There are rules of the game to be played in South Africa, and it is vital that South Africa s political leaders should borrow from the sports world the spirit with which competition becomes exhilarating.
Sir Geoff Hurst, West Ham and England centre-forward, scorer of a hat-trick in the 1966 World Cup Final:
Everyone can try to do their best in whatever leisure is suitable for them. Sport provides the platform for that: a chance to achieve, in fairness, generosity, discipline, team spi