THE answer is, it really depends.
But the obsession of sports fans and writers/commentators on athletes who make it big at a young age creates a bias against those who attain their peaks at a later age, and those who falter at a younger age.
And two Filipino athletes come into this conversation — Manny Pacquiao and Alex Eala.
The recent loss of Eala at Austria has seen an increase of Filipino bashers. And thankfully, there are those who say that she still young and that most of the opponents who beat her are older than her.
However, the obsession of sports fans and writers/commentators on young athletes who achieved more than Eala at this point has been used as a weapon to denigrate the Filipina’s achievement.
Among these young tennis players are 21-yea-old Coco Gauff, 19-year-old Victoria Mboko, and-18 year-old Mira Andreeva. And the truth is, they have more accomplishments than Eala.
But denigrating Eala just because there are three, four, five or even ten players her age or younger who have done better may be just unfair. To me, it is very unfair. Because the tennis world is also littered with older players — many past 30s — who still thrive and won their major titles mid-20s.
Furthermore, the top guns in female tennis — Aryna Sabalenka — is 27 years old. Eala’s latest tormentor, Jelena Ostapenko, is 28 years old.
Perhaps the problem of venerating or idolizing to an unreasonable degree young achievers is the overlooked fact that they comprise “survival bias” tales or for every one tale of huge success are hundreds or thousands of failures.
Also overlooked are the struggles many young athletes had to go through before making it really big. And that brings us to Pacquiao, who got big fights in his late 20s.
Pacquiao’s steep climb to fame started with his eighth round stoppage of Oscar De La Hoya in December 2008 when he was turning 30 years old.
However, the bigger fight of Pacquiao as he left his 20s was against Ricky Hatton, who only had one loss then, on May 2009 when the Filipino was already 30 years old. Pacquiao stopped Hatton in the second round.
And maybe not known to many, Pacquiao won his first world title at flyweight by beating via third round stoppage Chatchai Sasakul of Thailand in December 1998. The Filipino was only 19 years old then, joining an elite club of professional boxers who won world titles in their teens.
Pacquiao lost his flyweight crown to Megdoen Singsurat of Thailand in September 1999 via stoppage. The Filipino was overweight and his having to shed off weight before the fight drained him.
So, how many years did it take for Pacquiao to beating Hatton to winning his first world title at 19? Ten years and five months.
Since Pacquiao was not yet a household name after winning his first title in 1998, he was not subjected to bashing when he lost his first title one year later.
But when Pacquiao beat De La Hoya and Hatton and became a household name in the Philippines and a popular sports figure in the United States and elsewhere, nobody dared question as to why he attained his peak in his late 20s.
Meanwhile, Mike Tyson, who was the most popular boxer prior to the reign of Pacquiao, won the world heavyweight title at 19 years old with huge aplomb. As for Pacquiao, his winning the featherweight title at 19 went almost unnoticed.
But look at how Tyson speaks volumes of Pacquiao’s greatness.
So, what is my point?
Let’s not rush Eala. And I won’t be disappointed if she wins her next titles at the 250 and 500 levels first. Also, Eala reaching the semis of the 1000 and Grand Slams would be enough for her at this stage.
Eala really needs to improve on her game, particularly her serve. And how many flaws did we see in Pacquiao from his early 20s to mid-20s. Several?
The truth is, survival bias tales of young achievers in sports clouds the expectations of fans on those who still need to sharpen their game to reach greater heights.
And young athletes who made it big in their early years are still one in a million.
As for Eala, she is one in more than a hundred million. For multitudes of Filipino sports fans, that is what matters the most.
