In case you didn't hear yet, Kim Clijsters won the US Open. For a sport where mid-twenties retirement is the norm, this is a truly inspiring story. I love it.
Clijsters, the 26-year-old, unseeded wild-card entry from Belgium, who was
a former No. 1 player, left the game two years ago to start a family and
returned to tennis just one month ago.
As Clijsters laughed at her 18-month-old daughter hamming it up around 11 p.m.,
she told the crowd of the plan that she and her husband, Brian Lynch, left, had:
“We tried to plan her nap time a little bit later. It’s the greatest feeling in
the world being a mother.”
Please read the full article
here. Clijsters is truly a classy lady with proper priorities. Her opponent, Wozniacki, is also a classy lady:
“I’m so excited that she came back, but unfortunately she beat me today,”
Wozniacki said of Clijsters. “She played a great match, and she deserved
it.”
And then, to prove her poise, Wozniacki took the time to thank her fans
and friends in English, Danish and Polish.
Not classy:
Serena Williams. I have no tolerance to unsportsmanlike conduct from professional athletes who are suppose to be role models. Shame on them. What kind of example are they setting for our youth?
Tennis not your thing? Here's
an example from last night's
VMAs that I heard on the radio this morning.
Classy: Taylor Swift & Beyonce
Not Classy: Kanye West
But back to Clijster's, who really deserves a post all her own.
Here is an article written before her big win giving more background on her, her tennis career, her choice to start a family, and her return.
Clijsters, 26, turned professional at 14 and ascended to No. 1 six years later. But by her early 20s, tennis no longer captivated her. “I had other things in my mind that I wanted to achieve as a woman and as a person,” she said.
So she retired, married Brian Lynch, an American whom she met while he was playing pro basketball in her native Belgium, and gave birth to their first child in February 2008.
Motherhood was going to be her full-time job for the foreseeable future. That was her assumption, anyway. She was like many elite female athletes, convinced that the
beginning of her childbearing years meant the end of her competitive career.
But a funny thing happened to Clijsters on her way to sleep-deprived nights and activity-filled days. Her life became at once busier and more balanced. Parenthood, she said, “definitely made me a more complete person.”
I applaud this women. If I ever have a daughter, and she wants to play tennis, I am excited that she will have this story to inspire her.
