Agreed. Are they athletes? Definitely. Is it a sport? Nope.
If it suits WWE to have a plotline in which 62-year-old Hulk Hogan (who has an artificial hip, at least one artificial knee, and has had multiple back surgeries) defeats all comers to “win” the title, he’ll “win”.
I’m not seeing a whole lot of sports being mentioned here.
I love when wimpy golfers get defensive about their “sport”:
http://www.golftoday.co.uk/tours/records/oldest_winners.html
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/232626-players-thriving-in-40s-but-not-in-majors
Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus both won majors in their forties.
They’re not the only ones. Phil Mickelson, Darren Clarke and Ernie Els have all won the British Open in the past few years, and all were over 40. Tom Watson was in contention to win the Open a few years back when he was 59.
So, I’m well aware that older golfers CAN still win majors, and sometimes do. The fact remains, most golfers decline in their late 30s, just as most athletes in most other sports do.
That’s why I find it unlikely (though OT impossible) that Tiger Woods will regain his magic touch and shatter Jack Nicklaus’ record for career majors at this point. There is no sport, not even golf, in which a 40 year old with a history of injury problems can be dominant.
Sportswriter Joe Posnanski gives an age breakdown of the ages of major winners over the past 54 year.
76% of majors in my lifetime have been won by players 35 and under.
Just 8% have been won by players 41 and over.
The only golf I ever play involves windmills, castles, dinosaurs and hitting the ball into a clown’s nose. I haven’t even owned a set of clubs in nearly 15 years (and I was never much good when I used them).
Golf certainly is a game that millions of old men play and enjoy, but at the highest levels, it’s a young man’s sport.
The putter is the first thing to go for most guys…
“Get in the hole!”
And the PGA won’t let you prop it against your belly anymore, either.
Auto racers can win races in their 40s but it’s rare for them to win championships. Maybe Fangio in F1 in the 1950s and John Force in drag racing today.
It’s a subset of athletes but knuckleball baseball pitchers don’t seem to get going until their 30s. Partly it’s prejudice against the genre. Charlie Hough was decent in occasional starts but wasn’t made a full time starter until he was 33 on a bad team. Phil Niekro was 29 when he became a full time starter and spent 7 years in the minors pitching little. His brother Joe was a mediocre fastball/curve starter before going knuckler and stardom in his early 30s. Tim Wakefield may be an exception being a started at age 25 but he may have had his best season at age 35
Nolan Ryan threw a no-hitter at the age of 44. I guess that proves old guys can dominate baseball, right?
No. Some of them can still play, some sometimes even at a high level, but Ryan himself would tell you he wasn’t the pitcher at 44 that he had been at 25, and that he started losing a lot in his late thirties.
No mention of the greatest of all time? Hoyt Wilhelm started out as a 29 year old relief pitcher in 1952 going 15-3 and finishing second in rookie of the year voting. He also hit a home run in his first at bat and though he played in over 1000 more games as a reliever until he was 49 (he pitched for 21 seasons after coming up at 29) he never hit another home run. But he did make the Hall of Fame.
But is that a sport where older players dominate, or just one guy who’s head and shoulders above the rest of the field?
Not usually in tennis, but take a look at the top 10 tennis players right now.
Also, 11-14 are all 29 or 30.
Karlovic is 21 in the world and is 36!
Of course it is. But it is easier to succeed at golf in your 40s than most other sports. Cant tell you how many times I see a gray haired, beer bellied guy that looks like my uncle during ESPN highlights, and turns out he’s in there Top 5 of a PGA tournament.
Im not saying golf is an easy GAME, but athletically, it is possible to get paid well into your 40s which you cant say about most sports.
40somethings who are still making a living in Major Leagues are a minuscule number compared to golfers. Nolan Ryan also was pitching in the AL at the end of his tenure and didn’t bat anymore.
Power pitchers who thrive in MLB into their mid-forties aren’t freaks of nature, they’re steroid users. Like Ryan and Clemens.