Wednesday 7 February 2007

From Stories Sports Photographs Told Me........

Some of the greatest sports photographs involved no sporting action at all. And often they told me stories; of chivalry, of rivalry, of tragedy and of true heroism.
One of them, for example, had an apparently shivering man, as weak as a 'butterfly' struggling to stay clear of the fire after lighting the Olympic flame, in front of a teary eyed President.
Another had a fallen hero returning to his fans, whom he had fled, at the top of a motorcade, oblivious to the surroundings, his head hanging on his shoulders with no sign of consciousness.
Yet another had a cricketer, bowler & Captain, walking back, retracing the run up all alone as his team mates, huddled together across the pitch at the other end, celebrated a wicket off his bowling! And a fourth one had 'The Saint' carrying the coffin of his rival who had fallen in the 'battlefield'.
One such photograph, a rather old one, had a young woman hugging a pole!
She did it after winning some obscure tennis tourney in Orlando, which incidentally was her first. Far away from home, cut off from family & friends, in a strange & distant land, at her moment of immense joy, as there was no one to hug, she hugged the nearest object she could, a light pole next to the Umpire's chair. Some one captured it on his camera & it got published on the next day's papers.
I'm not sure if she made it big in the highly competitive world of professional tennis. But she must have been a trend setter for many girls these days take up the sport which demand extensive traveling across the globe.
Wait a minute.....
............the caption below the photograph gives her name.............
it reads ...........
Martina Navratilova!

6 comments:

aravind said...

really nice thoughts ...

The life of every sports person gives us immense aspiration-to fight and win the challenges in life.

Abhi said...

That was really informative post sir! Looking forward to more from you!

Unknown said...

if possible send these photographs to me.

Blesson Varghese said...

Yes I enjoyed this article.Indeed inspiring...I also get inspired a lot by nature........

athul v dev said...

sir.......
very nice and inspring post sir...

Hari said...

Inspiring post sir! And that was Martina Navaratilova.. U left me Awe struck!