The dean of American sportswriters, Grantland Rice, once wrote that Babe Didrikson was the greatest all-around athlete in the world, male or female. She won three gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics, but had her high-jump title taken away from her because she went over the bar head first, a style now used by many champion jumpers.
She decisively defeated Babe Ruth in a golf driving contest, won all the women’s golf titles, and shot a below-par first round in an important men’s tournament only to be barred by the jealous men sponsoring the tournament.
Most champion athletes have exceptional bodies. Heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali has great strength and tremendous reach. Because of his remarkable quickness, it is almost impossible to hit him squarely with a punch.
Australian tennis star Evonne Goolagong is very agile and perfectly coordinated. Other women tennis stars such as Pam Shriver are about as tall as the male tennis champion, Bjorn Borg.
Today’s queen of athletes was not born with those remarkable extra physical advantages that have characterized most champion athletes. She is of only average size and, not blessed with unusual strength, quickness, or reach.
Yet Chris Evert has dominated women’s tennis for four years and seems to be getting better each year. ‘In a recent match for $75,000 with the Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert won easily in straight sets.
It is interesting to consider what makes Chris Evert the champion tournament money winner of all women athletes. She lacks the strength and power of Navratilova. Miss Evert is much shorter than Virginia Wade, the English champion, or Betty Stowe, the doubles champion. But Chris Evert has probably won more important matches and tournaments than any other athlete in the last four years.
The secret of her success seems to be her marvelous concentration. Championship tennis requires perfect concentration to coordinate the footwork, eyes, hands, and swing necessary for consistently excellent shots. Other great tennis players sometimes let their concentration lapse, or their irritation at themselves or others interfere with their skill.
Chris Evert seems to be able to concentrate totally on what is needed for every tennis shot, and to maintain that concentration throughout the match. Unlike Ilie Nastase, she is never distracted by erroneous line calls, net balls, the sun, the wind, or other variables of tournament tennis.
Because of her tremendous personal achievement, impressive earnings, and extensive publicity, Chris Evert is a “queen” above any heights to which movie or television stars could aspire. Yet her life has been untouched by the scandals that seem to attend those entertainment stars who treat marriage as casually as going through a revolving door.
Even tennis has had its share of moral delinquents. One tennis star advertised in the newspapers that she had an abortion. Two other former tennis champions were notorious homosexuals.
Chris Evert lives simply with her parents although she is one of the most eligible young women in the country.
Chris Evert is an inspiration to girls everywhere because she has achieved so much as a result of her own hard work and self discipline, rather than from the natural endowment of unusual physical abilities. She is proof that perfect mental concentration may be the most important asset a tennis champion can have.
That same quality can be the key to success in any field.
