When Annika Sorenstam was 22, she was wrapping up a profitable school profession at Arizona and turning professional, simply starting what can be a historic profession that will finish with 97 skilled wins and 10 LPGA majors.
Quick ahead 32 years and Sorenstam is seated subsequent to a 22-year-old Caitlin Clark at The Annika Girls’s Management Summit – two ladies who’re very completely different but additionally share similarities as among the greatest athletes on this planet and trailblazers for girls’s sports activities.
In 2024 alone, Clark, who’s at present one of the widespread athletes in America, led Iowa to a second straight NCAA runner-up end, was drafted first general by the Indiana Fever, and had a historic rookie season within the WNBA, rapidly acclimating to the professionals and persevering with her methods as a dominant scorer and passer. In her first season, she set a WNBA document with 19 assists in a sport, grew to become the primary WNBA rookie to document a triple-double, and earned WNBA Rookie of the 12 months.
One of many widespread threads between Clark and Sorenstam is their why – their motivation – and, no, their objective wasn’t to develop into trailblazers and inspirations. They only needed to be the very best on the factor wherein they have been most passionate.
For Clark, she performed a ton of various sports activities, together with golf, earlier than deciding on basketball in highschool.
“I needed to apply, and I believe that’s what was completely different,” Clark stated Tuesday at The Annika, an LPGA occasion hosted by the golf legend. “I needed to get higher at it. I needed to spend time engaged on my sport. And that was in all probability what set [basketball] aside from all the opposite sports activities I performed – [the other sports] have been simply form of for enjoyable with my mates.”
Clark was nonetheless aggressive, it doesn’t matter what sport she was taking part in, however she didn’t take further time to work on her sport or actually need to be higher than all people else – till she centered on basketball.
“I believe it was simply the desire I needed to need to get higher at it – like, I like simply practising it, and I believe at occasions that’s not one thing all people actually likes to do or desires to do or is enthusiastic about one thing they love.”
Desirous to apply and put within the hours, having fun with the method, was what advised Clark that she needed to have a future in basketball. She was motivated just by “desirous to be the very best.”
In Sweden, a number of many years prior, Sorenstam had tried snowboarding, tennis (impressed by Bjorn Borg), and “each [other] sport however basketball.”
With golf, Sorenstam was pushed by the problem – how onerous the game is, particularly with so many variables.
“Whether or not you’re employed in your driving or your irons or your strategy pictures or placing or chipping, there’s so many various pictures they usually’re so completely different day by day – completely different on the grass, the lie, the wind, every little thing is so completely different,” Sorenstam stated. “And I simply love the problem of attempting to hit it.”
A bonus for the shyer Sorenstam rising up: golf is “very peaceable more often than not.”
These are two athletes who discovered their calling and embraced each impediment on the street to turning into nice, but they’re humble, each out and in of their fields of experience.
Whereas Clark is often simply “praying to interrupt 100” in golf, Sorenstam says 3-pointers weren’t actually her factor – to which Clark laments of the courtroom star Sorenstam may’ve been. That sums up one other widespread thread between the 2: humility and respect.
With all eyes on them, it may very well be straightforward to get a giant head, however Clark and Sorenstam satisfaction themselves on staying true regardless of the accolades and fame.
“Clearly, life has modified loads, however I attempt to dwell in the identical precise method that I did after I first confirmed as much as school and stepped on campus and attempt to be the identical genuine person who I’m,” Clark stated. “For me, I really feel like I’m residing in a dream, but additionally, on the similar time, it’s particular – I strive to not let it move me by.”
Each ladies are impressed by the subsequent era, the younger ladies and ladies at occasions, those who might be the way forward for their respective video games and past.
“I do know a number of ladies that transfer on from taking part in sports activities and [who are] now in C-suites,” Sorenstam stated, including, “I believe all people talks concerning the impact that we have now on them, but additionally, they’ve the identical impact on us.”
“That’s the explanation that you just play,” Clark added. “It’s not due to the wins and the factors you rating; it’s the quantity of pleasure that you may carry folks and the younger ladies that can someday develop as much as hopefully be no matter they need to be.”
Sixteen years after retiring, Sorenstam might not be within the full-time enterprise of profitable tournaments anymore, however she definitely nonetheless has a purpose to maintain being a power in golf. That’s really her largest concern: “Waking up and never having a function, that will be horrible.”
What appears to set the generational skills aside from the remaining isn’t just their skills, however what they do with these items – the alternatives they make.
“[Caitlin] is simply beginning her spherical of golf, if you realize [what I mean], her journey,” Sorenstam stated. “She’s simply teed off on gap one or two. I’ve made the flip already.”
If Sorenstam has achieved a lot since age 22, it’s mind-boggling to consider what’s in retailer for the younger Clark, particularly in a time when ladies’s sports activities is booming.
Think about who she’ll pave the best way for in one other 30 years.
