When Annika Sorenstam was 22, she was wrapping up a profitable faculty profession at Arizona and turning professional, simply starting what could be a historic profession that may 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 Ladies’s Management Summit – two ladies who’re very totally different but additionally share similarities as a few of the greatest athletes on this planet and trailblazers for ladies’s sports activities.
In 2024 alone, Clark, who’s presently some of the common 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 file with 19 assists in a sport, turned the primary WNBA rookie to file a triple-double, and earned WNBA Rookie of the Yr.
One of many widespread threads between Clark and Sorenstam is their why – their motivation – and, no, their objective wasn’t to turn out to be trailblazers and inspirations. They simply wished to be one of the best on the factor during which 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 wished to apply, and I believe that’s what was totally different,” Clark stated Tuesday at The Annika, an LPGA occasion hosted by the golf legend. “I wished to get higher at it. I wished to spend time engaged on my sport. And that was in all probability what set [basketball] other than 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 really need to be higher than all people else – till she centered on basketball.
The WNBA celebrity is scheduled to compete in Wednesday’s pro-am at The Annika.
“I believe it was simply the need I needed to wish to get higher at it – like, I like simply working towards it, and I believe at instances that’s not one thing all people actually likes to do or needs to do or is captivated with one thing they love.”
Desirous to apply and put within the hours, having fun with the method, was what informed Clark that she wished to have a future in basketball. She was motivated just by “desirous to be one of the best.”
In Sweden, just a few 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 arduous the game is, particularly with so many variables.
“Whether or not you’re employed in your driving or your irons or your method photographs or placing or chipping, there’s so many various photographs they usually’re so totally different on daily basis – totally different on the grass, the lie, the wind, the whole lot is so totally 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.”
