Ronnie O’Sullivan is to snooker what Michael Jordan is to basketball or Tom Brady to quarterbacking- the greatest of all time. Like Mozart could just look at a piano and intuitively have it all figured out, even as a child, O’Sullivan was a youth prodigy, some would call a “genius” in his field from early on in life.
The West Midlands, England native began playing snooker at age seven, and became the youngest ever winner of a ranking title, a record he still holds to this day. He’s also the youngest player ever to have won the Masters, capturing his first title in 1995, when he was still a teenager. Now aged 42, he’s won a record seven Masters titles, five World Championships, and his estimated career earnings of more than £10 million place number one on snooker’s all-time prize-money earners list.
To stay at the top of one’s game in middle age requires an added level of effort, and one that is all encompassing. In a very revealing and detailed interview with the Betway Insider blog, Ronnie O’Sullivan says that his two main passions these days are eating healthy and running.
He credits the former for helping him stay in elite form at snooker, but maintains the latter does not have an impact. His passion for eating right grew out of necessity.
“I think the UK’s probably the worst place I’ve ever been for food,” he said in the interview, showcasing once again the mercurial kind of public commentary that has accompanied his career.
“It really is. I see what some places serve up and I just think:
‘Wow. No wonder we’re not producing great athletes.’ You look at other countries, what they eat, and it’s fresh, proper grub. I think it makes a huge difference to your development. I travel in Europe a lot, to places like Bulgaria and Romania, and even there the tomatoes taste different, the cucumbers taste different. In the UK, it’s quantity over quality, and I’m trying to avoid being part of that system.”
He says the food he’s had while playing in tournaments in China and Thailand is some of the best he’s ever had. With the help of Rhiannon Lambert, a Harley Street nutritionist, he’s converted to the church of healthy eating, and how he’s spreading the gospel to others. Lambert re-educated him on food, and now the pair hope to re-educate others, via their new health and fitness book, Top of Your Game: Eating for the Mind and Body, which comes out next month.
Although O’Sullivan maintains that physical fitness has not been a crucial component to his professional success.
“You don’t really have to be fit to be a snooker player. If you eat well and play snooker, you’ll be absolutely fine,” he said of his affinity for running.
“I just done it because it was a good outlet for me. I had quite an addictive nature, so I thought: ‘Well, if I’m going to be addicted, I might as well get addicted to something that’s really good for me.’ That was running, keeping fit and training. At least if I am going to over-do it on something, the worst that’s going to happen to me is that I end up with a few sore calf muscles, or my shoulders are a bit tight.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan, has someone who has been in the public eye for a quarter century, knows very well that he’s a role model. It’s great that he’s using influence to try and spread such a positive message.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.