Danica Can't Escape Comparisons To Kournikova

When she was 14, Danica Patrick was so deeply involved in basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, band and choir that she was featured on a one-hour TV special called "Passionate Play: Making Of A Champion."The show included two other teenage athletic phenoms — figure skater Tara Lipinski and tennis player Anna Kournikova. Funny, but when Patrick arrives for an Indy Racing League event these days, nobody draws comparisons to Danica and Tara. Why? Because Lipinski won a gold medal in the 1998 Winter Olympics.No, it's all about Danica and Anna. You know the harangue: Is Danica Patrick the next Anna Kournikova?Why? Because Patrick has started out on the same professional sports career path as Kournikova, where her good looks and personality have made her immensely popular even though she has not won an IRL race.Yes, it's easy to put the pretty/athlete/hasn't won continuum into play when trying to connect the dots between Kournikova and Patrick. But let's cover a couple of other points where the two clearly veer apart.• Kournikova competed in women's tennis, with the occasional crossover to mixed doubles. Patrick is the only woman running in the male-dominated IRL.• Kournikova played 10 years of pro tennis and failed to win in 122 singles events, although she did team with Martina Hingis to win the women's doubles competition in the 1999 Australian Open. She was ranked in the Top 10 only once.Patrick is in just her second year in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and has gotten behind the wheel for only 24 races. She is a mere child in open-wheel racing circles. According to Scott Goodyear, a former driver and now an analyst for ABC, the average number of starts before a driver gets his or her first win is 33.• Kournikova's personal life is as flighty and disjointed as her tennis game. Hockey star Sergei Fedorov insisted he was once married to Kournikova. She later had a relationship with another Russian-born NHL star, Pavel Bure. She also has been romantically linked to singer Enrique Iglesias.At age 24, Patrick is married to physical therapist Paul Hospenthal. She has talked about starting a family, but not until her racing career is over.Too, Kournikova spent a considerable amount of time modeling and at photo shoots during her tennis career. Patrick has done her share of posing in front of a camera. The provocative photos for FHM in 2003 are often brought up.But when Kournikova is mentioned, Patrick wonders aloud if tennis always came first to her. Then Patrick leaves no question of her priorities."I'm committed to racing," she says. "I want to get better with every lap I run."But until she wins a race, Patrick's popularity will be written off by some as the result of her good looks, media savvy and the novelty of a woman's competing in a man's sport.Of course, she could end all that talk by winning the Firestone Indy 200 tonight or any of the subsequent five IRL events remaining on the '06 schedule.To her credit, Patrick understands that she needs a victory to quiet the critics. Asked what a first-place finish at Nashville Superspeedway would mean, she said:"What relief, huh? What a bunch of a relief I would have after finishing and finally winning that first race. I can't wait. I know it's going to happen. I don't know when, though. I wish I could look into my crystal ball and figure it all out, but I can't. We'll just have to wait it out. …"I do believe that once you win, you learn how to win. I don't know if it's a different mindset that you have after that or if you literally learn how to win, but I think it gets a little easier after that first one."Some other drivers believe her time in Victory Lane is coming. She already has earned something almost as difficult as a checkered flag — respect."She's proven herself. I told her she earned my respect as a driver, and I think that's important," said two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves.Clearly, Patrick is the face of the IRL. She brings new meaning to the term "fast woman." She arrives at Nashville Superspeedway as the most watched driver in the field. She has her own merchandise trailer where her collectibles outsell every other IRL driver 10 to 1.Liberally listed in the sport's media guide at 5-feet-2 and 100 pounds, she is carrying the weight of the IRL on her shoulders. In this country, NASCAR rules motorsports. The IRL is struggling for all the attention it can get.And Danica gets attention. She is a winner in popularity polls even if she has not won an IRL race.In the July edition of Maxim magazine, the results of a survey of more than 20,000 respondents ranked its Dream Team of female athletes in this order:1. Maria Sharapova2. Anna Kournikova3. Jennie Finch4. Serena Williams5. Danica Patrick(In case you're wondering, the three most popular male athletes were, in order, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.)In the latest Harris Interactive online poll, where Tiger Woods knocked Michael Jordan out of the top spot for the first time in 13 years, Patrick was listed as the No. 5 female athlete. Kournikova, who no longer plays competitive tennis, was ranked ninth among women.It is unclear if the rankings would be shuffled in these and other such polls if Patrick won a race.But it would make a difference in her self-evaluation."It's not from a lack of trying," she said. "I put my heart and soul into everything I do and every lap I turn. Winning is every driver's goal."In other words, Danica Patrick is concerned less with all these polls and more with pole position.Unlike Anna Kournikova, she doesn't plan on retiring from her sport as just another pretty face. David ClimerThe Tennessean