Grand Slam Hard to Accomplish

The New York Times > Sports > Sportsview: "The Kentucky Derby is the first and most prestigious at the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles, the Preakness is more of a sprint at a sixteenth of a mile shorter, and the Belmont is the grueling ``test of champions'' at 1 1/2 miles. Throw in the vagaries of the weather, track conditions and changes in the fields, and it's no wonder that it's so hard for a horse (and jockey) to pull it off.

A Grand Slam in golf -- winning all four majors in a single year -- is so ridiculously difficult that no one has done it since Arnold Palmer came up with the idea in 1960. A golfer not only has to beat each course in ever-changing conditions, he has to beat every rival four times.

Consider that it's been 37 years since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski captured baseball's Triple Crown -- the home run, RBI and batting average titles -- and that only 11 players (Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby twice each) ever did that.

The Grand Slam of tennis -- winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. titles -- is only slightly less daunting. It takes a player of remarkable versatility and stamina to win seven matches in two-week periods on hardcourts, clay and grass. Only two men, Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and '69, managed the feat, though both did it when all the majors except the French were on grass. Laver's second Grand Slam was the only one by a man in the Open era. On the women's side, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Margaret Smith Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988 were the only ones to do it in a single year.

-- Czechoslovakia's Emil Zatopeka winning the triple crown of long-distance running -- the 5,000, 10,000 and marathon -- at the 1952 Olympics.

-- Jesse Owens in 1936 and Carl Lewis in 1984 pulling off their own grand slams of track, winning golds in the 100, 200, 4x100 relay and long jump.

-- Michael Johnson's golden double in the 200 and 400 at the 1996 Olympics.

-- Mark Spitz's sensational seven in 1972, winning gold over different distances with different strokes.

-- Eric Heiden's fabulous five in speedskating in 1980 -- golds at five distances from 500 to 10,000 meters."