Shock news! The No 1 tennis player in the world has announced that there is more to her life than the number of times she wins a tennis championship. The collective state of astonishment at Ash Barty’s retirement at the age of 25 says as much about how we see athletes as it does about this extraordinary woman. How have we reached a point where it is surprising for a top athlete to have a healthy mindset? Where it stuns us that someone who has won at the highest level isn’t desperate to do it again as many times as possible? Where we ask why she is somehow unfairly depriving herself – and us – of something she owes us, as though she hasn’t yet served her time?
Barty has been in tennis for 20 years (remarkable given that she has only been alive for 25 years), has won multiple grand slams including the memorable victory at her home slam in Melbourne in January. She has been world No 1 for over 100 weeks. But the questions after Melbourne focused not on this stunning victory, but how many more like it there would be in future. Sporting achievements are transient, each one diminished as the focus shifts inevitably to the next, and next, and next. But by finding lasting value in that magical scene in Melbourne, she could have found her biggest victory. When I joined the Olympic pathway some years ago, coaches asked me whether I was willing to do “whatever it takes”. In hindsight,I can see now how sinister that was. When you inevitably agree in the affirmative – the only option unless you wanted to walk out on your Olympic dream – it is like signing a pact with the devil. It means giving up defining success on your own terms or as anything less than coming first as often as possible, at any cost. Barty has made no such pact. She has explained clearly that she has nothing more to give. Why would anyone want her to keep pushing further at a point likely to lead only to mental and physical damage? Do onlookers want her to continue until she fails?
