BOOK REVIEW - The Greatest:The Quest for Sporting Perfection by Matthew Syed

This book is an easy-to-read collection of articles, all of which have previously been published in “The Times” over the previous ten or so years.  Their loose connection is that they summarise a range of factors which characterise high performance in various sports. 

The articles are collected into five categories, loosely connected by a variety of themes.  Some of the links are tenuous and forced, though all the individual pieces are well written and interesting. The idea that they create a concerted whole is a little far-fetched.

The first section, “Building a Champion” identifies an eclectic combination of factors which contribute to sporting progress, including parenting, practice and performance programmes. Another section considers the mental side of sport, a further one on high achievement and a fourth on the overlap between sport and politics, including an alarming exposure of some of the dark practices of former Communist regimes which were committed to the propaganda value of sport.

The final section considers the biographies of a dozen or so sporting “icons”.  These range from Billie Jean King to Sir Roger Bannister – culminating in the title athlete: Mohammad Ali, self styled as “The Greatest”.

Syed’s prose is always engaging, and the messages succeed in transcending the time sensitivity of the news stories which stimulated them.  This is not a book which will profoundly influence thinking on sport, or human achievement.  It could even be considered as a slightly cynical commercial re-packaging of old material.  It is, however, a readable summary of sporting themes of interest from the second half of the Twentieth Century and beyond – stimulated by readily recalled events and characters.