WIMBLEDON, England -- So I arrived on the grounds Friday morning and, in the wake of last night's car bomb scare in downtown London, the security was tighter than Tim Henman in a fifth set. (Cheap shot. Sorry.)
As I prepared to stand on line for the Gate 16 bag check, an athletic-looking woman on a blue mountain bike pulled up. Amélie Mauresmo got off and waited in line. Good form prevented me from asking why she wasn't wearing a helmet.
"You can't come in here with that bike, missus," admonished a security guard, a Joe Strummer look-alike, sound-alike. Mauresmo calmly explained to the gendarme that she had always ridden her bike through the Wimbledon grounds without a problem.
"I'm just cutting through," she said.
"Well, you have to go around!" the guard snapped.
Mauresmo rolled her eyes and then did something remarkable. She turned and walked away. No fit of pique. No "do-you-know-who-I-am?" business. No gentle suggestion that perhaps the rules could be relaxed for the defending Wimbledon Ladies champion. No "get me your supervisor" business. (We recalled the story of Samantha Stevenson -- remember her? -- stopped by Russian security and demanding to speak with Vladimir Putin.)
No, Mauresmo just pedaled off, perhaps figuring her psychic energies would be more usefully devoted to her next match. Merde happens, she implied.
This was just another reminder that, when players are on the court or in press conferences they may offer glimpses into their personalities. Or they may not. Today's media-trained, media-savvy athletes reveal as much of themselves as they please in these controlled settings. Their agents and handlers would prefer they only spoke when they had a product to pitch or a charity event to plug.
Yet in unremarkable, unscripted, everyday moments, you can learn plenty about an athlete's disposition. Incidentally, after Mauresmo was out of sight, the guard complained that "some lady tried to ride a bike through here." His superior popped up, "That would be OK. Just check the seat next time and let her in."
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6 comments:
Kids these days, no respect for authority! >(
:D
Hope you had a good day :)
I mean it's not like she won the thing or anything is it!
Who does she think she is?!
Spanky, shut up!
It's a wonderful article, although I wouldn't read that much in such a gesture. You never know what she might have thought.
But I understand that journalists have to write something everyday.
I posted it just to let yall know that she has rided her bike around Wimbeldon for years thats all Just in case you did not know .
Yeah that's amazing! I didn't know that. I can see why she likes Wimby so much.
A lot of the players stay in houses that are very local to the tournament :)
Thank you for posting it Hugo87 :) *hug*
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