Eimear Ryan: It's special to watch sporting 'greybeards' in the twilight of their careers

Sport, with its early retirement, forces its participants to grapple with their decline early, in a sort of strange rehearsal for old age. But sometimes sportspeople save some of their best material till last

Kilkenny’s Conor Fogarty and TJ Reid celebrate

House of the Dragon, the less beloved but still entertaining prequel to Game of Thrones, returned to our screens last month. In the first episode’s opening scene, a Targaryen prince goes north to ask the Starks of Winterfell to supply him with soldiers for the imminent war. The young Stark lord says: ‘I have thousands of greybeards who’ve already seen too many winters. They are well-honed. They will fight hard.’ Increasingly, as I watch sport, it’s the greybeards that catch my attention – the seasoned performers on the cusp of retirement, hanging on for one more shot at glory.

We live in a culture that worships youth. Music, film, and even literature are obsessed with finding the next young thing. Sport, with its early retirement, forces its participants to grapple with their decline early, in a sort of strange rehearsal for old age. But sometimes – in the same way that a cherry tree’s last blooming is often its most spectacular – sportspeople save some of their best material till last.