The decline of a great champion.

It is often not pleasant to write about a sports idol.

Sport, as we know, has a lot of exitism. Good attitudes, correct behavior and other rules of good conduct in our actions count for little if we don't win.

And this is valid not only for the fans - which would be purely anecdotal - but also, most of the time, for the sportsmen themselves.

There are very few athletes who know how to retire in time. In my case, my hobby is motor sports, especially motor racing - Formula 1 - and motorcycling with MotoGP.

In each of both sports I have two examples to propose of "intelligent retirements": in Formula 1 it is obligatory to refer to Keke Rosberg when perhaps due to his youth he had a long way to go. And in MotoGP the example of Casey Stoner is always present.

But today I want to deal with the opposite extreme. Of the desire not to retire. To keep on racing. Even at the risk, many times, of making a fool of oneself, sportingly speaking.

And in this case I refer to a phenomenon of MotoGP: Valentino Rossi, a rider who immortalized a number: the 46 and not the n. 1 as until then corresponded by right to all the winners.

He was followed by Marc Márquez in MotoGP and Lewis Hamilton in F1.

But what drives Valentino Rossi to continue racing when age would advise him to retire? Ego? The hope of reaching 10 world titles?

A missed opportunity.

Last year without Márquez - injured - and with a very even group he could not enter the fight for the title. And if I can't do it in 2021, it's utopian to imagine that I can do it in 2021.

A season that, on the other hand, has started in the worst way. Lousy pre-qualifications and absolutely anonymous final classifications in the race. Only 4 points in 3 races. Pitiful for the phenomenon he is. Or was. In a position (19th) that gives food for thought.

A few days ago the well-known sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport did a report on him that aimed above all to explain what motivated him to continue racing with such poor results.

And among other things Rossi recalled his beginnings in Yamaha at a very young age in the 90's on board a Yamaha, and from that moment on, a career that would be legendary for more than two decades.

His wish to have been able to compete with Mike Hailwood, Kevin Schwantz and Giacomo Agostini, if they had been contemporaries, other phenomena of his time.

His duels with Max Biaggi and some less pleasant memories that prevented him from reaching the much desired world championship n. 10: the final lost in Valencia 2006 and the controversial end in the 2015 season.

Between memories, past and future, the obligatory question: why are you still racing?

The adrenaline rush of running.

And the answer, verbatim from his statements, was: "My reasoning is very simple and I don't understand why there are so many people who don't understand it.

Running makes me feel good. I don't care at this stage of my life whether I win, get on the podium or finish last. I want to keep racing. I like that feeling.

The adrenaline that rushes through me during and after each race and that feeling of being well that lasts for several days. I know that in the end I will lose the fight against time. But until then I will try to make life as difficult as I can.

A definition of someone who, despite the years, continues to run for the pleasure of running.

The past, the legend, the titles, the records, are behind us.

This is another story. And Valentino knows it.

The images and screenshots in this article are from Eurosport. The image of the final banner with the signature -modified by the author- is from FreePNG