The modern day superstars who continue to push the limits
Thirty is far from dirty for today’s superstar athletes. In fact, 40 isn’t naughty either. Who’s to say that 50 won’t be soon pretty nifty? Just how do they do it?
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There was a time when turning 30 signalled the end for elite athletes.
But now, with emerging knowledge and science around nutrition, training and recovery, it seems some of the best in the world are ageless – and even getting better later in their careers.
Four of them, who can rightly be considered the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in their respective fields, have used varying techniques and tricks to break the age barrier and redefine the limits of what is possible.
SERENA WILLIAMS
The greatest female player of the Open Era, Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, only behind Margaret Court (24), but is widely considered by most as the best of all time.
When Williams turned professional in September 1995, 37 of the current top 100 ranked players hadn’t been born.
Remarkably, the 39-year-old won the 2017 Australian Open while eight weeks pregnant.
Williams then survived a complicated birth of her daughter in September that year, in which a pulmonary embolism left her bedridden for weeks and delayed her comeback.
Yet somehow she was able to reach the final of Wimbledon in 2018.
Williams won her first Slam aged 17 – the US Open – in 1999, and is still hunting titles 22 years later.
Williams’ finely tuned muscular physique has been sculpted by a relentless training schedule and disciplined diet.
In the past decade she has largely maintained a raw, vegan diet during her playing season, initially to support sister Venus who was forced to cut out meat and dairy due to an auto-immune disease.
But out of season, Williams will splurge on her favourite dish, fried chicken.
Williams holds the record for being the oldest female Grand Slam winner and world No. 1, and now attempting to break back into the Top 10, she has the opportunity to rewrite her own legacy.
TOM BRADY
No question the greatest American footballer of all time, Brady now has more Super Bowl victories (seven) than any team in the NFL’s history (New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers have six each).
He may have been wobbly after a few too many tequila cocktails at Tampa Bay’s victory party this week, but Brady is considered the most disciplined athlete by his peers – he has never tasted coffee and caffeine is banned, as is alcohol, except when celebrating another championship.
At 43, Brady is a sporting marvel.
According to the supposed experts at the time, Brady was too slow and weak to make the big time after an NFL Scouting Combine, and was the 199th draft pick in 2000 behind six other quarterbacks.
He then took New England to six Super Bowl titles, before joining the Buccaneers, a move most felt would see him fade out within a season – a common theory was that Patriots coach Bill Belichick was the real mastermind of their incredible run.
Instead, Brady took the Buccs to the top of the mountain to win his seventh ring this week, and a fifth Super Bowl MVP award – Bradmanesque achievements unlikely to ever be matched.
Brady’s unflinching winner’s mentality astounds his teammates. In the week leading up to their upset victory over Kansas City last Monday, Brady texted his teammates each night saying, ‘We will win’.
After collecting the Super Bowl trophy, Brady turned to his players and said: “I think we knew this was going to happen, didn’t we?”
Brady drinks up to 25 glasses of water each day, 80 per cent of his diet is vegetable and fruit – he barely eats red meat – and while you’d expect him to focus his training around his $33 million-a-year throwing arm, the bulk of his workouts target his glutes and legs.
Brady says he can still be playing at 45.
LEBRON JAMES
While Michael Jordan is No. 1 on most peoples’ basketball GOAT list, James is making a strong case to suggest he is the best to have ever graced the court.
Jordan won six NBA titles, but he had the best assist merchant in the game’s history – Scottie Pippen – as well are rebounding extraordinaire Dennis Rodman to help him. And Jordan won them all with the Chicago Bulls.
At 36, James is producing his best basketball and may yet catch Jordan’s six championships.
He already has four, and impressively, he’s won them with three different teams; Miami Heat (twice), Cleveland Cavaliers, and LA Lakers.
The claim to Jordan’s throne is that James is the ultimate triple threat. While Jordan was a scoring machine, James is breaking records in scoring, assists and rebounds on his own, with many of his finest performances in playoff games.
James earned the wrath of his hometown Cleveland when he decided to “take my talents to South Beach” where he won two titles.
But he returned to Cleveland and then delivered them their first championship, after the Cavaliers had trailed Golden State Warriors 3-1.
And his feats last season, after Lakers legend Kobe Bryant was tragically killed in a helicopter crash, defines his mental strength.
James carried his team and the grieving city of LA on his back, all while the tournament dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, to win an emotional championship against Miami. It was the Lakers’ first title in a decade.
To continue his pursuit of excellence at an age most ballers have lost the ability to keep up, James spends $2 million a year on his physical fitness, including a personal chef and masseuse, private home gym, cryotherapy, biomechanical recovery and special compression gear.
He is not as fastidious with one type of diet; James has a sweet tooth, enjoys wine, but also undertakes Paleo eating for months at a time to get lean.
ROGER FEDERER
The Swiss maestro turns 40 in August, yet is still top five in the world rankings, and plans to add to his record 20 Grand Slam singles titles.
Federer and Rafael Nadal share the record for most Slam wins, a battle of titans that has captivated the tennis world for two decades.
But while 34-year-old Nadal does not eat cheese and can train up to five hours a day, Federer is far more relaxed.
Two hours before each match, for the past 20 years, Federer’s routine is to eat pasta. He also splurges on waffles for breakfast, pizza, sushi or curry later in the day, and is a connoisseur of fine champagne and wine.
However, Federer burns off the calories with specific, short and sharp workouts at full intensity. During tennis season, Fed won’t step into a gym. His routine is tailored to the game, so there’s plenty of agility work, resistance band training and cone drills.
Federer is also a fan of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), often pushing out 12 sets of 100 per cent efforts for 15 seconds with a 15 second break.
Only during off-season does Federer lift weights.
Many credit his training methods and relaxed diet for his remarkable ability to have stayed largely injury-free since he turned professional in 1998.
Federer holds the record for becoming the oldest No. 1 in ATP history when he reclaimed the throne in 2018, aged 36.
While many continue to wonder whether Federer has enough desire to keep winning big events, he’s revealed that at the young age of 24 he envisioned playing into his late 30s.
Federer’s mental resilience is unmatched, and he credits his ability to leave losses on the court and immediately switch from athlete to husband and father as the key to his sustained time at the top.
Originally published as The modern day superstars who continue to push the limits
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