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The Rise and Fall of the Sporting Elite

Sport

by Chris Hughes

There is nothing we Brits love more than to heap scorn on underperforming sports personalities and this year has yielded a bumper crop. The backlash against Wayne Rooney after his spectacularly unspectacular world cup performance is perhaps a prime example of building sports personalities up only to take relish in knocking them down once more. The 2010 sporting year has conjured up a number of instances where iconic and legendary sports stars have faltered and all of them must come back fighting if they are to regain their number 1 status.

Like Rooney, tennis ace Roger Federer is another whose star has shone significantly less brightly this summer. Following his near knock-out in the first round of Wimbledon, R-Fed stumbled his way through to the quarter finals but failed to navigate his way past the tournament’s eventual runner-up Tomas Berdych. Whether that is a blip in his otherwise outstanding career, or early signs that his inevitable downturn has begun doesn’t really matter. His descent to ‘only’ third best in the world behind Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on the ATP rankings would give credence to this latter cynical view.

In the world of motor racing, the high profile return of Michael Schumacher was the talking point of the off-season, but the seven-time world champion’s lack of form in the ten races to date has been just as widely debated. Schumacher appears to be a shadow of his once unbeatable self, even if there are occasional signs of a breakthrough. His team-mate and compatriot Nico Rosberg has generally held the upper hand and three places ahead in the drivers’ championship. Few would write Schumacher off, even at 41 years of age and with a patchy start to his revived career, but unless his season improves quickly, the 2010 season will be an unworthy epilogue to his F1 biography.

Tiger Woods’s problems are well documented. The revelations surrounding his private life have transformed the best golf player ever to have graced a fairway. Who knows if the events of the last nine months have changed Woods the golfer forever but what better place to find out than at St. Andrews, where Woods is chasing his third straight Open win. Since his return to competition in April, Woods has failed to win, and that is harming his sporting reputation perhaps more than any extra-marital disclosures.

In two-wheeled motorsport, Valentino Rossi is looking set for a surprising race return at this weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring following his leg-fracturing accident in Mugello just six weeks ago. MotoGP as a sport has suffered in Rossi’s absence with lower TV audiences, fewer track spectators and a general feeling of hiatus while waiting for the prodigal son to return. Rossi is perhaps fed up of seeing his more youthful team-mate take all the plaudits but whatever the reason for his accelerated return it will be a fillip for the sport as a whole. Rossi is far from losing his place atop motorcycling’s pedestal, not least with a heavily rumoured switch to Ducati in 2011, but his four race absence has allowed MotoGP a rare glimpse into a Rossi-less future.

Whether justified or not, the presence of social media platforms has served to exacerbate the public beating that sports stars and properties endure in the aftermath of disappointment and to amplify the voice of discontent amongst fans. You only have to take a glimpse at Twitter’s trending topics list immediately after a game, match, race or championship finale to gauge the public’s perception. It might be shock, it might be disbelief, it might be downright derisory, but whatever the sentiment, social media platforms are forming public reaction to sporting events and individual performances immediately and unreservedly.

But although social media platforms allow the public voice to resonate loudly, sports personalities themselves will rarely be able to counter waves of criticism and negativity by responding through the same social media channels. When it comes to upholding sporting reputation, there is only one tried and tested way to counter negative criticism and that is to win.

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