Navratilova, the toast

THE SENSE of occasion demanded something quite extraordinary - an appropriately epic victory against her greatest rival, Steffi Graf, perhaps - but, just as the Centre Court crowds could never quite bring themselves to love her, when the gods finally decided to bestow sporting immortality upon Martina Navratilova, they did so almost grudgingly.

Navratilova's record ninth Wimbledon singles title in the summer of 1990 should have been the stuff of legend; instead, with most of the planet otherwise preoccupied with football's World Cup finals in Italy, the moment of her ultimate triumph proved somewhat anti-climatic. The record books indicate she defeated American Zina Garrison 6-4, 6-1 in what was one of the least distinguished finals of the post-war era but the manner of her success was a matter of complete indifference to Navratilova. ``They don't put an asterisk before your name,'' she explained with a cheeky grin, ``to say, `she won, but she didn't play very well'.''

The greatest sportswoman of the 20th century, Navratilova did everything she could to win the universal affection she craved; nine Wimbledons, three Australian, two French and four U.S. Open championships plus 150 or so assorted singles titles, more than any other man or woman. But no matter her fabulous achievements, she could never succeed in silencing the carpers or gain the public's forgiveness for usurping Chris Evert, Wimbledon's sweetheart in bangles and bracelets.

``She plays like a man,'' became the popular refrain of those who blithely chose to overlook the fact that Navratilova did anything but; she played in the style of Margaret Court, Maria Bueno and Suzanne Lenglen before her, displaying complete all-court mastery allied to the new female weapons - awesome power and athleticism. Compared to those who would follow, such as the Williams sisters, Mary Pierce and their bludgeoning ilk, Navratilova was peaches and cream, but still that taunt will forever hang over her reputation.

She plays like a man; what those people meant, of course, but were far too cowardly to actually say, was that they believed Navratilova behaved like a man because she had admitted to several lesbian love affairs. Dignified, humorous and gracious, Navratilova would never appease those who reviled her by apologising for her sexual preferences, but she reigns supreme as the champion of champions.

In a sport which has been tainted by the rumour of drug abuse ever since the muscle-bound army of East German sprinters first emerged from the `university' of Leipzig in the early 1970s, Irena Szewinska of Poland flew over the track on a cocktail of pure adrenalin and talent. As lean as a whippet and as fast as the wind, she won the first of her three Olympic gold medals as an 18-year-old member of the Polish 4 x 100 metres relay squad at Tokyo in 1964 when she also collected silver in the 200 metres and long jump.

After winning the 200m gold and 100m silver at Mexico City in '68, marriage, motherhood and a prolonged ankle injury hampered Szewinska's preparations for the 1972 Munich Games. Despite being unable to train for over a year, however, Szewinska dragged her body through the various heats to qualify for the 200m final in which she added another bronze medal to her haul, finishing third behind East German Renate Stecher and Australian Raelene Boyle.

``Irena was my idol when I was young,'' said Stecher. ``I had read of her great competitions in Tokyo and Mexico City but I never dreamed that one day I would be privileged to race against her. She is the model for all sportsmen and women who aspire to greatness at the Olympic Games.''

Irrespective of their nationality, Szewinska never hesitated to offer her fellow sprinters advice or encouragement, thereby becoming known to all as `The Queen of the Track'. As her 30th birthday and the 1976 Montreal Olympics approached, Szewinska switched her attention to the 400m, setting a world record of 49.9 sec; even so, she entered the Olympic final as second favourite to East German Christina Brehmer. To complete the fairytale, she ran as never before, crossing the line 10 metres in front of Brehmer to win a third gold medal 12 years after her first Olympic victory in Tokyo.

I wish I had seen Mildred `Babe' Didrikson in person, for many are those who regard her as an early day `Wilson the Super- Athlete'; at the U.S. Olympic trials of 1932, Didrikson won the high jump, shot putt, javelin, 80m hurdles and the then popular `baseball throw'. Allowed to compete in only three events at the subsequent Los Angeles Games, Didrikson won gold in the javelin and hurdles but was relegated to the silver medal position in the high jump because her head preceded her body over the bar. ``The judges are crazy,'' fumed Didrikson. ``That's the way I jumped throughout the whole competition, so if my last jump was illegal, so was my first.''

As her prowess at track and field began to wane, Didrikson (``Before I was even in my teens, my goal was to be the greatest athlete who ever lived'') took up golf, turning professional in 1947 after becoming the first American to win Britain's Amateur Championship. Under her married name of Zaharias, she went on to amass six `majors', including the U.S. Women's Open in 1948, 1950 and 1954. A member of the all-America women's basketball team, an international class 10-pin bowler and a demon on the softball diamond, Didrikson once disqualified herself from an important golf tournament she happened to be winning after playing the wrong ball out of the rough. ``But no-one would have known,'' remarked a spectator. ``I'd have known,'' came her famous reply. ``You have to play by the rules of golf just as you have to live by the rules of life. There ain't any other way.''

Fast-talking and fast-living, brashly confident and fiercely independent (she was a prototype `women's-libber'), Australian Dawn Fraser upset as many people with her outrageous behaviour as she thrilled with her exploits in the pool. The only swimmer to have won three gold medals in the same individual event (the 100m at Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964), Fraser was the idol of all Australia when she was selected to carry her national flag at the opening ceremony in Tokyo. Alas, her fall from grace was almost as quick as her world record time of 58.9 secs; to celebrate her third individual gold, Fraser led a group of team- mates on an attack of the Emperor's Palace, removing a Japanese flag from the roof as a souvenir.

Although the vast majority of Aussies dismissed this perceived insult as a harmless prank, Fraser was banned for 10 years as punishment for humiliating the emperor (a suspension subsequently reduced to four years) but at the age of 27, her illustrious career was effectively terminated. Informed that her world mark of 58.9 would have beaten Johnny Weissmuller into second place in the 1924 men's 100m Olympic final, Fraser replied coolly: ``I have always hated the easy assumption that girls had to be slower than boys.''

Long before television could bestow spurious celebrity upon quiz game hosts and teenage pop singers, Suzanne Lenglen was a star; as glamorous, regal and mysterious as Garbo.

As balletic as Bueno, as iron-willed as Borg, Lenglen won Wimbledon from 1919-1923 and in 1925, remaining unbeaten anywhere in the world from the age of 14, although her retirement due to illness when trailing American Molla Mallory in the 1921 U.S. Championship final aroused heated debate on newspaper front pages across the world.

I decided the `minor' placings as follows: Nadia Comaneci, for taking gymnastics on to new levels of excellence. Fanny Blankers- Koen, who would have been a world-beater in any generation into which she had been born. Steffi Graf, a gloriously athletic sight to behold. Wilma Rudolph, who overcame illness and abject poverty to become one of the greatest Olympians of them all. And last, but certainly not least, Billie Jean King, without whom women's tennis would never have been transformed into a multi- million dollar entertainment industry.

- Copyright Telegraph Group Ltd. London, 1999

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