Perhaps that is the essence of his life and athletic career.
Legends often fade with time.
The memory of their deeds recedes as they are replaced by those who follow. Figures from a distant time and place become the artifacts in a museum of the mind. The retelling of their story only occurs when elders gather, adjust bifocals, shift walking canes and whistle through false teeth. Faulty recall embellishes or exaggerates the tale. And so, on the sad occasion requiring an epitaph, the legend is revisited in inflated form.