Faster, Higher, Stronger | Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah might miss Tokyo 2020 as Fifa and clubs hold all the cards
- Packed summer also includes Euro 2020 and Copa America with English Premier League starting same day as Olympic final
- Under-23s and three over-age player format is odd while clubs are not obliged by Fifa to release likes of Mo Salah
“In terms of achievement, I think winning a gold medal is the pinnacle in any sport,” said Andy Murray after Wimbledon in 2012, with the London Olympics on the horizon.
He said similar to the BBC during the tournament: “In general, to the whole world, a gold medal is the pinnacle of sport.”
Murray had not won one at that point but that would all change several weeks later when he beat Roger Federer at the All England Club to become Olympic champion, the opponent he had lost to on that same Centre Court at Wimbledon earlier in the summer.
The Scot, who would defend gold for Great Britain in Rio four years later, reached the pinnacle of his sport in his own view.
You could argue for tennis that the pinnacle is the grand slams and Murray definitely reached the pinnacle in those, winning Wimbledon and the US Open while reaching the final of the French and Australian Opens. No argument there.