might note justin cate sme viewers were only now tuning in and hnad’tscenityet, None ofthe ladies seem tonotice the president's ‘ld lie ighess eyes appear to get closer and closer together Aroughout his taped address, nor tha some of his nes sound almost paarialy denial eo those tered by Bruce Wil (ax arightoving wacko, recall) in Tie Sigea cope yea back Nor at east some ofthe sheer werdnes of watching the Horror unfold, has been how closely various shots and scenes have misored the plots of everything fran Dis Hand II to Air Fre One Nobody's ear hip enongh to ledge dhe sick and obvious pomo complain: ‘We've Sen This Before. Instead what they do sal sit together and ‘el realy bad, and pray. No-one in Mes. Thompson's ew would ‘rer beso nauseous ato ry to get everbody to pray stud or form a prayer ice ut you can sil tell what they all doing, Make no mistake, this smo a good thing. I forces you to think and do things you mote key woulda’ alone ke for In stance while watching theses and eyes to pray, sendy and fe ‘ent thatyou're wrong abou the president, thatyour view of him is maybe ditrted and he's actly fr smarter and more substan. til than you beleve, no jut some soulless golem or nexus of cor orate intetentdresed up na auitbuca statesman of eourage and robigyand andi’ good, diss good to pray hwy. Ie justa bit lonely to have to, Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing tobe around. 'm at fora moment ying suggestthat everyone Thnow in Bloomington ike Mrs, Thompion (eg, her son F— {ant though he's an outstanding person} I'm uying, rather, 0 explain how some part of the horror of the Horror was knowing ep in my hear, that whatever Amesica the men in those planes Ite so mich was far more ny America, and F—', and poor od loathome Duane’, than cwas these lie. 201 ea. HOW TRACY AUSTIN BROKE MY HEART Because T AM a longtime rabid fan of tenis in general and ‘Tray Anstn In particular, Te rately loked forward to reading a sports memoir the way 1 looked forward! to Ms, Austin's Bend ovr Court: My Str, hosted by Christine Brennan and published 1 Morrow. This i ype of mastmarket book — the sportstar: “vit4omebodyauwoblography — that seem to have bought nd read ans loe of wih ll or of up and downs and ambi lence and embarrassment, usualy putting these books under some: ‘hing more highbrow when I get tothe register: I think Austin’s ‘memoir has maybe finally broken my jones forthe genre though. Here's Ben Go Court's Astin on the frst set of her final ‘aint Chis Bret at dhe 1979 US Open: "At 23, E broke Chis, then she broke me, and broke her gai, so we were at 4-4" ‘And on ter epiphany afer winning tht final * immediately Ine what Thad done, which was to win the US Open, and Twas riteTracy Austin on the psyehic rigors of pro competion: “Every profesional athlete has to eto finetuned mental” ‘Austin on hee parents “My mother and father never, ‘ver pushed me" ‘Tracy Austin on Martina Navratil "She is wonderful pr son, very sense nd ering” On Bile Jean King: "She ao Is incredibly harning and acornmnadating” (On Brooke Shields "She wa so set and bright and easy talk ight aay” racy Austin meditating on excellence: “Thee sth te bit cexua that ome of ware wing to give and some of ur aten't Why ‘sha I think he challenge tobe the best You get the idea. On the upsie, though, thi breathtakingly inp autobiography can maybe help wsndenand bath the edu tion and the disappointment tha sem to be Bult at the mas market sport memoir. Almost uiformly poor at books, these athletic "My Story’s sll incredibly well: dhs why there aze 20 ‘many of them. And the sel wo wll Bec let storey seem to prize something more than the regular olf nammedropping celebiey autobiography, Here ie theory. Top athletes re compelling because they em body the comparion-baed achievement we Americans revere — fast, sronget—and because they do x0 in a totally uname biguous way. Questions of the best phimber oF best managerial accountast ae impossible even to define, whereas the bet relief Pith, free dhrow shooter, o female tennis player, at any given time, a mater of pobli stastcal record. Top athletes fascinate ot ‘byappealing to ou win compulsions wih competisve superiority sand hard dats, Pla they're beau: Jordan hanging in midair ike a Chagall bide, Sampras laying doom a touch volley at an angle that defies eli. And they inspiring. These i about worl athletes carving out exemptions fom physical lw a transcendent beaty 7 {EVEUTENEPEED EE DEEEVONUEUEPEPEYEEEDEEEODEREEEEEEET EO OEECEET ET ETE ERI: ‘at mates manifest God in man. So actly move dn one theory, ‘hen. Great athletes ae profundity in motion. They enable abstac- tions like foserand grace and cnt to become not only incarnate butte. To bea top athlete, performing, sto be that ex ste hybrid of animal and angel that we average unbeatifl wateh- ‘ershave such a hard ime seeing in ourseles ‘Some want okxow them, these gfe, driven physical achier 7 We too, as audience, are den: watching the performance is not enough. We want to get intimate wth al dat profundiy. We ‘ant inside them; we wan the tory. We want co hear about hu ble 00% privaton, precciy, grim reso, discouragement, per sence, team spc, scree, keratin, inet and pi, We want 1 know how they di, How many hours 2 night did the child Br spend in his driveway hing jumpers under home- steung lodlighs? What ungodly time id Bjorn ge up for prac tice every morning? What exact makes of cary id the Butkus boys ork out by pushing up and down Chicago street? What dit Palmer and Brett and Payton and Ever have o ge up? And of course, 00, we want o know ov if, inside, to be both beaut ful and Bes (‘Howe dit fel wo wn the big one) What combina ion of blankness and conceneation required t sink x put ora ffeethrow for thousands of dolar in fro ofrllons of unblnk ing eyes? What goes though thet minds? Are thes athlete rat People? Are dey even remotely Uke 1? Is their Agony of Defeat !soyting lke our litle agonies of daily usration? And ofcourse ‘what about the Thrill f Victory— what might i fel ike to hole ‘up that$1 Goger and be able to erally moon? 1am about the same age and played competive teri in the ‘ame unor ranks as Tracy Austin, bala country ava and several Platems Below her, When we all heard, i 1977, that California fir who'd just med fourteen hal won profesional tournament in Portund, we weren't so sch eslous at agog. None of us could ‘come close to testing een a topeighteenyearold, much les pro cater adults. We started to hunt her up in tennis magazines,search ut her matches on obscure cable channel. She was about Four foot sic and eightive pounds. She hit the hell ou ofthe al and never mised and never choked and had braces and pigtail ‘hat sung wildly around a she handed pros thee ates. She way the it eal child aa in women's tenn and inthe ate Seventieg she was prodigions,beaifl, and inspiring. There was an incon ruousy adult genius abou her game al dhe more aan fo her lide sige and sly hai, remember meaitting, with al dhe fntensity 2 Blleenyearold can summon, on the diferences that ‘ep thi gi and me on our eespcsiv sides of the TV screen, She vasa genius and Iwas not: How must ic have fel? Th some sr ‘us questions oak her. wanted, very much, herside oi Sothe pont, then abouthesesporsmemoles' market appeal ecause top athletes ate profound, because they make a certain ‘ype of gen a carnllydacenibe a itever can ge, hex got wien invitations nse their lives and theirs are eeiiy esac for book buyers Explicitly oF not, the memoirs make 3 promise —to let us penetate the indefinable mystery of what rakes sme persons geniuses, semidvine, to share with ws dhe secret and so both to revel the diference between us and them nd wo erase lie, that diflerence expect only one, the master naraive the key) Stay However sedcvely they promite, though, dese aucobiogra pies rately deli And Bend Cover Court My Str especialy tad Te book fil oc so much because ie’ poor writen (whic Ieis—I don't know what ghotoiter Brennan's enhancing fans ‘don was supposed ta be hee, butit'shard wo see how Austin herself ‘could have done any worse than vo hundred dead pages of "Tene nis took me ke magic earpet tol kinds of plces nd all ins of ‘ope enlivened onl by winces ke “ajuries—the signature of the rest of my earcer-—were about to tke hokd of me"), but tone us the (we want, becase commits what any colege sophomore hnows is the cap ta erie of expository prose forgets who ifs supposed to befor. HOW TRACY AUSTIN BROKE MY HEART 143 Obvious a good commercial memoir’ int loyalty has got to ‘pe 1o the render, the person who's spending money and dine to a4ces the consciousnes of someone be wishes to know and will fever met, But none of Bayond Gata Csurts otis ae to the reaer: The author's primary allegiance seems tobe 1 he fy and frends. Whole pages are ghen over to numbing Academy ‘Avacé-syle wibutes to parents, bigs, coaches, talner, and age, pls ule burbles of praise for prety much every athlete a celebrity shes ever met. In patil, Austin's account of ‘er oma (extremely anscendent intresting) competitive career eeps digresing into warm fazies on each opponent she face, ‘Typical example: Her thi ound at 1980's Wimbledon was against, American Barbara Power, who, weeaen, lca relly good pemon, Barbara very nce oan ough my injure eninge books eens ou, an eheling toe how was ding Barbra deftly war neo the sate people onthe our heard gong clos om wich est ‘toate fora woman our age Kocwng Bastar Tete’ ‘ering harder than al er flow sede ‘Bat there is algo here an od loyal to and penchant forthe very clichés with which we sports fans weave the vel of myth snd mystery that hes ports memoirs promi opt for us. almost Tracy Austin has srctred he oa sense of he ie an career toaccord with the formulas of the generic sports bio. We've gotthe sense and doting mother, dhe Kady da, the mischievous sib lings who teat famous Tracy like just another Kd. Weve got the Ingenue heroine whose innocence i eroded by expetiece and transcended through sheer gi we've got the gruff but tender: hearted coach and the cooly skeptical veterans who finaly aceept fe heroine. We've got the wked, balatabbing rial (in Pam Shes, who receives dhe bok’s only unfutome mension), We even Fe the myhequiste humble root. Astin, whote father isa Corporat scentst and whose mothers one of those lean tan taies YY) .7oyonscaysgnqvaneuvevevrveveverercrevereeceerererevrT1 (£1 NNN‘who seem to spend all day every day at the county cub tennis ‘ours, tes wo poruay her childhood in posh Roig His Estates (CAs impovershed:"We ha to berg in al Kinds OF ys, we ct expenses by delaking powdeted lk... dnt have bacon ‘except on Chrismas” Stl ke this seems way ot of touch with tealty uni we rea that dhe kindof reality the ator’ chen to bein ouch with here fot jst n- But ante Tn fac asunreveaing of characte ass prenseease tone and ‘genericmyth structure make tis memoir, fs dhe narrator's cue Jeane hat permits us our only glimpses of anything ikea rex) and faceted life, Thats, elie rom the book's skewed lyaltles can ‘be found only in those places where the ator eens unwitingly ‘o besray them. She proves, for insane, repeatedly and with an most Gertudian fervor, that her mother “didnot fore" her io tennis at age tvee, i spparendy never occurring to Tracy Austin. that athreejearold hast got enough awareness of choices to require any forcing. This wat the child ofa mors who spent the evening before Tiay’s birth hing tennis balls to the fiy’s ‘other four children, tee of whom alo ended up plying pro en ‘is. Many ofthe memoir’ recollections of Mrs. Austin seem alae Viennese in their repression —°My mother alvaye made sre I ‘behaved on cour, but I never even considered acting up" — and downright creepyaresome ofthe details Aut choosesin order to nee "how nonintense my tennis background realy as "rere thinks every youn enn pliner very ooeiensonal lh seas ee ny ete Ut yas ore, Fever played teat on Monday My mother made renter pin een sight days oo the court She din goo the cb Maras 0 1 gets weieder, Later inthe book's ehildhood section, Austin iscuses her “wonderful frends wth aman from their cour ‘ay cub who “et up... matches for me agin unaspectng foes In laterearsand... won alot of money from hisfrends and ta token of Blendaip, "bought me x necklace with a hanging oni “The Thad fourten diamonds on it” She wa apparently tena this pint As the books now fly adult Asn analyzes the relation ship, "He was avery wealthy criminal lawyer an I ddn'thave very such money. With all is gifts for me, he made me fel speca.” ‘Wh guy. Regarding her de facto employment in wha i tec «aly known as spors hustling "eas alin good fan” Tn the subsequent section, Austin recalls 3 1978 pro tourna: ‘mentin Japan thatshe hadn't much wanted enter ‘eva tof fom home and I ed om he eid ‘They Kept offer moe and more mney fran penance fee yelleners handed shad dallas dn, Fly ‘hey fee yyw ove Thad We went nd Besides dliplaying an odd Snancal sense (the won't come for $100,004, but ill come f they add a couple thousand airfare?) ‘acy Austin seems here unaware ofthe ft tha, inthe ate Seven ses any plyer who acceped a guaranteed payment ust for enter fag tournament vat In wolition of @ serous tour rie, The bnchtoryhete i Ut both gender plyerssocations had ou lawed these payments becae they threatened both theres and the perceived integrity of pro tennis. A tournament that has paid Some str player a helt uarance — wanting her in the ataw ‘because her ele i help increase ike ss, corporate spon- sorships, TV revenue, ete — thereafter has an obvone sake in ‘hat player's suv n the tournament, andso hs an equally ob fous interest in Keeping her from geting uptet by some leer ‘own payer in the eatly rounds, which, since matches linesmen and umpires are employed by the tournament, an lead to shady officiating, And has soled. Far seanger things than a marquee ayer’ receiving a smpicions number of favorable tine call have happened... hough apparently somehow notin Tey Aust’ experience ‘TH 0druvneneuvevvyreverevevevvrercesrovoveveeeecrereecrercrererererer1 41711 YeeThe nave on ipa dhrooghout ths memoir is doubly conf Jng-Onthe one han, theres it signin thie nae of nyhing lke the fontabobe acts required for outright deeepion. OF the other, Austin’s guoranceof hee sport's gli realities set erally increible, Random examples. Whe she secs @ player “tank” a 1986 tourament match to make tne for a fuerte ap Pearance in a TV ad, Tracy “couldn't Believe it,» Thad mene played with anyone who threw a match before, soit took mea set and Pa to sealie what was happening." Ths even though ‘matcanking had Deen widely and publicly reported asa dak consequence of skyrocketing exhibition and endorsement fes for at teat the leven years Austin ad Been in pro tennis. Or, dg be, although problems with everything upto cocaine and heen ‘in pro tennis ad been not only acknowledged but writen about in the 186057 Austin manages to move the reader to both scorn and Pity with pronouncement ite "Lasmme players were experimen: og with marijuana an certainly were drinking alcohol, bt T don't ‘ow who or when or where. I wasn't invited to thse pate, f they were happening at all. And I's very gad Tvasn'.” And 30 on ‘Uli, though, what makes Beyond Coe Court 30 expe: lly disappointing is that could have been much mare than ist another Exasbornsopliy sports memoi. The facts of Tay ‘Aut’ le and it tector are almost cascally tragic. She wat the fist ofenns's noweubiquitous nymphet prodigies and her rise eas meteoric, Picked out of the crowd ata tar by coaching una Vic Braden, Austin was onthe cove of Word Toi agate ‘tage four She layed her ist junior tournament seven and by ten she had won the national ge’ twele-andunder champion ‘hip both indoors and out and was beng iited o play public exhibitions. At thirteen she had won national es in mos junior ee er he Gn enn nce agesFoUps been drafted a profesional by World Team Tennis, sed appeared onthe cover of Spats Murat under the teaser “A Is Bor.” At fourteen, having chewed up every frale in US junior, she entered the peliminary qualifiers or her fit proes- ‘onal tournament and proceeded to win not just de quaifing ‘ent but the whole wourney a feat roughly equbalent to some ‘one who was inligile for a DMY learner's permit winning the Indianapolis 500, She played Wimbledon 3 fourteen, tuned pro ‘3 ninthgrader, won the US Open at sixees, and was ranked ‘umber one in the world at jut seventeen, a 1980, This was the same year her body started to fl apart. She spent the next four year fective crippled by injuries and bizare acldents, playing sporadically and watching her ranking plimimet, and was fr all practical purposes reed fom tennis x age twenty-one In 1989, her one serionsattempe ata comeback ended on the may tothe US (pen, when a speeder ran ard ight ad neatly ied he. Shes ow 36 ofthis writing, profesional former sports sar, running «rlebriy clinis for corporate sponsors and doing sd ide bits of olor commentary on some ofthe same cable channel Fl frst, seen her pay on ‘Whar’: neat Greek about her careers are is that Tracy ‘Asin’ most conspicuous rte, a releness workaholic perfec Yionism that combined wth raw talent make her sch a prod sous succes, tamed out to be nko er wand bane, She was, ‘¥en after pubery a day peron, and her obsensve practice rey men and uncompromising effort i every lst match began to allict her with wha sports MDs now know to be simple conse. ‘quences of hypertrophy and chronic weatthamnting and hip flexor pls, sciatica, sclior, tendinitis, ses fractures, plantar faci. Then 100, since woe clasicly Breed more woe, she was Ieakarcdent prone: caches who il on her while cesbating and ‘break her ankle, psychotic chiropractors who pl he pine oat of| ligament, waiters who sla her with scalding water, colorblind ‘peers on the JFK Parka, PVE revererereneencreneersrenresueassnseresescxemeeeecemenrnetltneim ¥ Tn i = [A sucessful Taey Austin autobiography, then. could hye forded us plain old plumber and accountants more chan jy access othe unquestioned genie ofan athletic savant or he high sped scent co the top ofa univocal thematically computed hierarchy. This book could actualy hae helped sto countenance ‘he sports myths dark side. The ony thing Tiny Austin had eer Snows how todo, her art—what the tragiesiy Greeks would uae called her tng, that tte in whlch Astin’ mastery of erat facitateds communion wih the gods themseies— was removed fom her atan age when most of us are jst staring to think sere ‘ously about commiting ourses to some pursuit. This memoir ould have been about both the seductive immortality of compet lve success and the es seduesve bt way more significant fai and impermanence of ll dhe compete venues in wich moral -humans chase moray. Austin's story could since the prec ‘ment ofa dedicated athletic prodigy wathed up at wenspone di fers in nothing more than degre from that ofa dedicated CPA ad fay man dying at sty, have been profound. The book ‘ould, ince having it all at seventeen id then losing i all by ‘wenig-one because of sau outside your conti just like death ‘xcept ou have to goon ving afterward, have ben tulips "onal And the publisher's ap copy promises just this “The nsp ‘ational sory of Tracy Austin’s long struggle to fn a ie beyond hanponship tenis” But the publishers ap copy Us, because i tame out that ‘nypirationats being used on the book jacket only ints adclché ‘sense, one basicaly equivalent wo Aearsyarming orf goador even (God forbid) umphane Like all god ad eich, it manages to suggest everthing and mean nothing. Honorably used, te pie means according to Me American Heritage “to animate the mind ‘or emotions of to communicate by divine infiuence.” Which ito say that inspiatinal, honorably used, describes preciely what & sreatathlete becomes when she's inthe arena performing, sharing the particular dsnty she's given her fe fr leting people winest SO HOW TRACY AUSTIN ARORE MY HEART 451 concrete, transient insanatons of x grace that for most of us resins abvract and immanent. Transcendent as were Tracy Aust’ achievements on a ple ‘court her autobiograpty doesnot cone anyahee else to honor Ing the promise ofits Nap copy inspiraonal" Because forget sine — there's not even a recognizable human being in here ‘And thisis' just because of clunky prose or hated stcte. The book sinanimate because i communicates no red eel and 0 resus no sense ofa conscious perton. There's nobody atthe ‘her end of the lin. Every emotionally significant moment of creator development gets conveyed in ether computeresque sac ‘ao oF ele a prepackaged PRspeak whote whole functlon is (Ghink about if) to deaden teeing, See, for instance, Austin's account of the moment when she has jst Beaten a workdcass dulto win her fist profesional tournament ovata tough mach nd simpy aad be Eas beiningo seta reputton for doing tat When you ly rom the seine, Pesereancenerenthing The pie money fr st place as Iwentreighbowand ols Or check out the book's description of her cree’ tag imax, ‘After working for fie yeas to make a comeback nd then, literally ‘0m the way to Pushing Meadows National Tennis Center, geting sldesviped by a van and having her leg steed through sheer Tad luck, Tracy Austin was now permanently ied ata word las athlete, and bad dhen ta ie for week in traction an think ahout the end ofthe only life she'd ever Ktown, In Bayo Center Cour, Austin’s inspirational proaerespons otis const of quot ing Leo Busaglia, reporting on her newfound enthuses for shopping, and then giving wn excrciaing chapteriong lit of ‘very ceebriyshe's ever met, lac rept ig er 0 Ope necaty somethin ate densa‘Ofcoure, neither Austin nor her book unique Ks aed ng to noice the way this same ai of robotic banality sufises not only the sporsmemolr genre bu ako the media ritalin which top athlete i ated to deseibe the content or meaning of hi cat “Turn on any postcontest TV inter: Kenny how did fel to rake dat sensational gamesvnning shoestring catch inthe end ‘one with absolutly no F man zie remaining onthe clck™ “Wel, Frank, Iwas just real pleased. 1 as real happy and ato pleased We'veall worked hard and comea long way 23 tea, and ies always a good feling 1 beable to conte” "Mark, you've now homered in your lt eight straight stats and lead. both leagues i RBIs — any comment? "Well, Bob, P'm just eying to take it one pitch ata me, ve been focusing on the fundamentals, you know, and tying to make a contibution, and all f ws now weve goto take icone game at Hime al hang in there and not lookahead an jut basicaly othe best we cana al ines” This stuffs stupeting and yet alto sera to be nena, maybe even necessary. The baritones in network blazers Keep coming up alter mes, demanding of physical genius these recombinant strings Of dead clichés sings that alter a while start to sound ike 2 strange kind of Il and which of course no network would solicit and broadcast agnin and agai if there weren't a large and serious audience out here who fad the banalies right and good. As the emptines in these athletes descipions of hee Feelings confirmed something we ned to belie All ight s0 the obvious point Great athletes way tn out ‘to be suningly inarticulate about just those quale and exper ences that constiute thei faenaton. For me, though, the impor tant question s why hiss slays so biteny dssppoiang. And why ‘Theep buying these sports memoirs with expectations that my own experience withthe gente should long ago have modified. and shy I easy alae fel thwarted and pised when I iis them (One sre of answer, ofcourse is that commercial autobiographies like thete promise something they cannot deliver: personal and a veal acces 0 a intrinsically public and performative ind of| gels. The problem wih chs answer dat I and the rex ofthe US book market aren’ that stupid — i impossible promises were sl ere wat to it we'd cath on after a wile, and it would sop tings profitable for publishers to chur thete memoirs out Maye what keps us buying in dhe fae of conuan dsppoint sents some deep complion both to expérence genius in the oneete and to univenmlie gens i the absract, Real in ptable genius sso imposible o define, and trae ano rarely site (much less eles), tht maybe we automatically expect people who are geniuses as athletes tobe genie alo as speakers and witers, to be arcuate, percep, tush, profound Is jist that we ively expect geniveerin motion tobe alo geniuser Imeflection, then thee aut to be that shouldn't ell seem any trutler or more dissioning tha Kant glass jaw or Eliot's nab iohithe curve. For my pat, though, I think there's something deeper, and scarier that keeps my hope one step shead of past experience as 1 ‘ake my way tothe bookstore’ register It remain very hard for me o reconcile the vapity of Austin narrative min, the one hand, with the extraordinary mental powers that are equired by worl tennis, on dhe other. Anyone who buys the idea that, athletes are dim shold have close lok aan NFL playbook, ‘or at a basketball coae’s diagram of $2 zone trap... or ata achiral lm of Ms. acy Austin repeatedly psting a ball fours comer at high speed from sevenseight Feet away, with huge sums of money at stake and enormous crowds of people ‘vatching her do it Ever ty to concentrate on doing something di ficult wih a crowd of people watching? worse, with a ctw of spectators maybe all vocally hoping you fl xo that ther favorite il Beat you? tn my own comparatively aweve junior matches, before audiences that surely hithtee digitised tobe ll Tol to to manage my sphincter I woul deve myself erry: "but hat double ult here and go dow a break with ll thee fs 10] Lyevarnerevrerocerecreveravveeoyyperrrenvreeaveeeeces¢1 e000 1 1g‘watching? don't think about it. yea but except if con ssouly no thinking abot then does part of me have hig about it in order for me to remember what I'not supposed ty think abou... shut wp qul thinking about iad serve the god, damn ball... except how ct Teven be talking o mye about ny thinking about i unlew Vn sil aware of what ts Fm king bout not thinking about” and soon. get divided, parle. Ag ‘most ungreatatletes do, Freeze up, choke, Lose out fc Be ‘come selfconscous, Cente tobe wholly present in ou wls and We not an accident that great athletes ate often called “nay ral" because they can, in performance, be totaly presen: they an proceed on inact and musclememory and autonomic wil uch ‘hat agent and action are one. Great athletes can doth even — and, for the wal great ones ike Borg and Bird and Niclas and Jordan and Aun, apt — under vaingprestire and seri They an withstand forces of eatracion tht would break mind prone to selEconacious fear in te. ‘The real secret behind top athletes genius, then, may beat soterc and obvious and dll and profound a sence ile. The real, manysiled anamer to the question of just hat ges through great player's mind ashe stands a the center of hose exon: noise and lines up the frethrow that wll decide the game might vel be nating at al How can great sthetes shut of the Igotike vice ofthe sl? ow ca they bypas the head and simply and superbly ac? Howat, ‘he evita moment can they invoke fr themsevesa cliché a tite and maa it and then doi? Maybe is because, for top athletes, clichés present ‘emelves not a ite but simply a tre, or perhaps not even as declarative expresions with qualities Tike depth or witenes of ‘auchood or th bat espe imperatives that ae either wel ‘ornot and fuel tbe invoked and obeyed and that'll here PEF T revere eesesrereerrceveeayercercerreneveveverestevnereecercera ‘Whacif when Tracy Austin vite that alter her 1989 ear eras, faiely accepted that there was nothing Icould do bout i the soement isnot only tre but easily deri of the entire ecrpance process she wen through? Ie someone sap or shal Tow because she can say to here that there's nothing she can do sot something bad and so she'd beter accept it, and thereupon seply accept it with no more interior stroggle? Ori tht person maybe somehow nathely wte and profound, enlightened in the cide wey some aint and monksare enlightened? ‘This forme, the reat mystery — whether uch a person isan ot ora mystic or both and/or neither. The only certainy seems tobe that such person does not prodace a xery good prose mem- ‘i That plan empirical fact maybe the bet vay eo expla how ‘Tacy Austin’s actual hitory ean beso compelling and important anu er verbal account ofthat history no even lve, Kemay alsin searing to addvess the diferences in communicablicy between thinking and doing and between doing and bring, yield the key to ih top athletes" autobiographies are at once so seductive and 20 ‘iappoining for vs readers. As sso often SOP with the tit, there's crue paradox involved ay well be that we spectators, eho are not divinely ited a ahlete, are the only ones ale wal to se, arcuate, and animate the experience ofthe gift we are denied And that those who recelve ad act out the git of atlee fenius must, perforce, be blind and dumb about it—and not because blindness and dumbnest are the price of the gi, but because they are is eence 1904