Amelie Mauresmo and Kimiko Date Krumm; Marathon players on the WTA tour
It has been one complete year now since the French tennis sensation Amelie Mauresmo retired from the WTA tour. The 31-year-old, however, has kept herself quite busy in the tennis community as she attended both French Open as well as the United States Open
in 2010. Moreover, Amelie also dabbled in TV commentating, and in fact tried her hand in coaching, assisting her compatriot fellows such as Michael Llodra in the grass court circuit.
However, the Geneva resident also has not abandoned her personal athletic pursuits. The 2004 Olympic Games silver medallist achieved another significant sporting feat; running the New York City marathon during the month of November. The right hander is a
part of the Sport For Life foundation, which is a Swiss based group working for spreading knowledge about the advantages of sports and backing up fresh athletes. Amelie has been their ambassador since November last year.
The 1.75 meters tall proved that she has not lost any of her sporting aptitude that led her to be ranked as high as number one in the South African Airways WTA list back in 2004.
While commenting on the marathon, Amelie in one of her recent interviews said, "I did the marathon because of a bet with Xavier Moreau, my former trainer. I said if I had to do one, it would be New York. I trained hard for two months with Xavier. I did it
in three hours and forty minutes. I was happy as I was aiming for less than four hours. As a player I was always going for the win and this was another challenge for me to prove myself."
Amelie is not sure at the moment whether she is going to run a second marathon anytime soon or not, however the Saint-Germain-en-Laye resident is not going to sit back now and spend her time aimlessly for the rest of her life.
Rather, Mauresmo shares her thoughts by saying that she always looks for different activities that further push her as an athlete.
A total of three other former tennis contenders also took part in the New York race, all from the men’s side namely, Yannick Noah, who captured the French Open title at Roland Garros back in 1983, Justin Gimelstob as well as Jonathan Stark. All of them finished
the race at least twenty minutes behind Amelie.
Former world number one, Amelie who made her debut on the WTA tour back in 1993, is not the only WTA contender to have taken part in a marathon as the 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm also ran the twenty six mile, 385 yard-lengthy race while she announced her
retirement, completing the 2004 London marathon.
Kimiko, who came out of her retirement back in 2009, ranks the marathon as one of the basic reasons the Japanese veteran player has been able to continue playing her game at the sport’s highest level on the tour.
"When I was young I ate healthy food, not so much junk food. I did not drink. My mother said it was too much sugar. At that time water was not popular in Japan so I drank only tea and I did not eat so many fat things. Although everybody is doing many exercises
and every day going to the gym more than me, I think Asians have a lucky body. The DNA is different, and particularly my body is different. I did the London marathon. I ran it in 2004 in three hours, twenty seven minutes and forty seven seconds! So now I have
a lot of stamina,” she said after her final eight round clash at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions back in November.
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