Few things get people more excited than a major sporting occasion. In the USA, huge companies devote a significant chunk of their ad budgets to short clips that will air during the Super Bowl. Cycling, which would seem to be a minority interest sport most of the time, brings people out onto the street to watch when the Tour de France winds its way around not just the home country, but usually a few others too. Then there are the huge global sporting occasions such as the World Cup and Olympic Games.

As well as uniting the viewing public in their enthusiasm for top-class sporting action, these events – particularly the summer ones – have a tendency to inspire us to have a go ourselves. For sure, we’re not likely to end up standing on a podium enjoying global triumph unless we’ve been training since primary school – but there are some intriguing stories of achievement, which we’ll look at in a moment or two. The real joy of taking your inspiration from a sporting summer, though, is that you can discover (or rediscover) the thrill of playing.

Football

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Although the enthusiasm around the English national team ended up bruised by a penalty shoot-out defeat to Italy, Euro 2020 caught the attention like few tournaments before it. This included creating an interest among people who by their own admission had never really been into football. Whether this is true of you, or you’ve been a devoted fan but stayed away from actually playing, there’s a surprising amount to encourage you in the way England fought their way to the tournament final.

For starters, not all of these players had the fortune to be groomed for the Premier League Manchester United or Liverpool. Defender Tyrone Mings made his bow with non-league Yate Town before moving to Chippenham in 2012. You’d have got long odds at the time on him representing England at a major tournament within a decade, but there he was: now he even runs his own academy. And he’s not the only player to represent England in tournament football after less than glamorous beginnings. 

Jamie Vardy, who scored for his country at Euro 2016, was 23 years old when he left Stocksbridge Park Steels, and 25 before he first wore the blue of Leicester City. It takes just a few willing friends and a whip-round to hire a five-a-side pitch, so why not try?

Golf

Although it’s often thought of as a sport for wealthy CEOs looking to close million-pound deals, golf doesn’t need to be exclusive. Indeed, some of the players lining up to play in the 2021 British Open will have come from humbler backgrounds, and many of them may have taken the game up late as a solo sport. When Y.E. Yang defeated Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship, it was not the culmination of a career that had started in school; Yang hadn’t even swung a club in any meaningful sense until he was 19, and wasn’t a fixture on any tour until his 30s.

Golf is not a sport with a huge restriction on age; Gary Player was still playing major tournaments in his seventies. Predominantly, it is a sport that rewards strategic and tactical thinking, right down to picking the ideal equipment to ensure you play your best. If you struggle with club grip, seek out the ideal pair of gloves. If your feet start to hurt before the back nine is complete, you may need to seek out the best golf shoes for wide feet so they have more room as they swell and get hot. In a sport where completing a single round can take hours, making the most of marginal gains is an essential part of winning. 

Tennis

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As Wimbledon packs up for another year, the big story of the summer is the success of Novak Djokovic, who now joins Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on an incredible 20 Grand Slam tournaments. With its big serves, fast surfaces and often long matches, tennis may seem to be a young person’s game. But the three men named above, still active in the professional field, are 34, 35 and 39 respectively. If you look after yourself, tennis can be a sport you enjoy well into middle age. 

It’s a good idea to find a club near you and ask about membership fees, but even if they are overcharging there will always be ways to enjoy tennis without taking to a formal court. Just hitting the ball back and forth on a suitable surface near your home can be an enjoyable way to get some exercise and see if you have a talent for the game. Maybe you won’t be up there with the players on the main tours, but there are other ways to enjoy the sport.

Whatever your age, condition, level of health or anything else, if you’ve been inspired by the sports professionals strutting their stuff on pitches, courses or courts this summer, there’s plenty of opportunity to try and emulate them and have some fun at the same time.