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When Achilles was being dipped in the miraculous River Styx by his mother Thetis to shield him from mortality, she could not foresee that after all this trouble he would still remain vulnerable. So when the poison arrow pierced the most discussed heel ever to exist the belief of immortality continued to linger on, but only as a myth.
They say nothing is immortal, after all. But then again nothing is impossible these days. Big bucks and unparalleled fame can, however, buy anything. Yes, even immortality! So what if it might be a tad different from what Thetis had in mind.
To be remembered by others after you are long gone is also like being immortal. Generally, people tend to accomplish this by being noble, building schools, hospitals, etc. Maybe AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli underwent the same emotion when he recently comissioned his life-size statue of the famous goal celebration. The statue would immortalise the bare chested celebration subsequent to the goal he scored for Italy against Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-final. The buzz was that regardless of all the sketches presented to him, Balotelli being dubbed as “difficult character”, “unmanageable” and “crazy” insisted on the said pose highlighting his muscles and threatening expression. According to Scarpella, the artist who is supposed to be working on the statue, the statue would be made of platinum with bronze colour and the eyes of precious stone.
There are, however, many renowned players who remain alive in the hearts and minds of their fans. To show these sportsmen love and respect, people tend to immortalise them in different ways. Presenting them with the keys to a city, naming stands in stadiums after them and also roads, trophies and tournaments is a common practice. These gestures of appreciation are especially prevalent in poor countries where making a statue is not that common a practice and where naming roads and organising a tournament is an achievement in itself.
In this regard, Madame Tussauds wax museums all over the world host many key international figures of stature. Many sports athletes feature in the museum, as well, which is located in many cities across the globe. The legendary heavy weight boxer Muhammad Ali, English footballer David Beckham and golfer Tiger Woods are the most common and present at most locations of the museum which shows their star value and global fan following.
At the museum, football is represented by a galaxy of stars including Pele, Lionel Messi, Steven Gerrard, Oliver Kahn, Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho and many others.
Likewise, tennis is being represented by players like Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal to name a few.
There are players, who made the game synonymous with their names like basketball player Michael Jordan, cyclist Lance Armstrong and Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton while Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is immortalised in his signature lightning bolt pose after winning a sprint.
Cricket greats like Don Bradman, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne are also part of the Madame Tussauds wax museums. Australians voted for the recently-retired Glenn McGrath to be immortalised in wax. His statue is scheduled to be unveiled in Sydney this year around June.
Other than the wax statues, metal ones and sculptures on roads, crossings or near different stadiums is also a common practice to recognise the ambassadors of the games. The Spirit, or Michael Jordan’s Spirit is a bronze sculpture outside United Center, Chicago. The landmark statue, boasting the heroics of one of the best basketball players ever to exist has a name, legacy, history and even an official address of its own. The Champions statue of the four footballers in London, marks the only time when England became World Cup Football champion back in 1966.
There is a long list of roadside statues of the players, and even coaches, being commemorated to mark and celebrate their services in sports. The statues and sculptures of the players to memorise, celebrate and remember their sporting skills and maybe promote those to the next generation and upcoming players is a fan’s way of immortalising and admiring his heroes.
But the idea of immortalising can even backfire when a piece is neglected as in the case of the late Indian Olympian hockey player Surjit Singh. Representing India in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Surjit Singh’s statue erected in Batala is reported to be standing near a filthy pond for years.
The absence of Pakistani athletes at Madam Tussauds is self-explanatory and indicative of the dismal conditions of sports in our country. Every Pakistani, however, has some moments etched in memory like the lifting of the 1992 cricket World Cup by Imran Khan, Javed Miandad’s hitting the famous Sharjah sixer, squash legend Jahangir Khan lunging forward to pick Jansher’s drop shot, ‘Flying Horse’ Samiullah’s dribble or Shahbaz Ahmed’s left-in flick in hockey, potting of the ball by veteran snooker player Mohammad Yousuf while leaning on the table or even our tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq’s high-fiving his partner Rohan Bopanna at the baseline in the US Open but these moments still await some kind of immortalising gesture on our part leave alone the rest of the world.
