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Björn Borg’s Memoir As Evasive as the Man Himself

“Great athletes usually turn out to be stunningly inarticulate about just those qualities and experiences that constitute their fascination,” David Foster Wallace wrote in 1992 after finding himself disappointed by Tracy Austin’s autobiography. Thirty-three years later and little has changed about the sports memoir genre, as evidenced by Heartbeats, Björn Borg’s new autobiography, which hits stores in the U.S. next week.

By Alec Dent

2:01 PM EDT on September 18, 2025

The fundamental flaw with sports memoirs that Wallace noted is that they exist in an inherent state of tension between what readers want and what athletes can provide. Readers want insight into not just the lives of the authors but how their talents work and how their greatest moments felt. But top athletes’ greatness may stem entirely from the fact that they don’t think about such things — instinct, habit, stoicism, and ineffable natural talent are their stock and trade. Over-analysis is death. 

“The real, many-veiled answer to the question of just what goes through a great player’s mind as he stands at the center of a hostile crowd-noise and lines up the free-throw that will decide the game might well be: nothing at all,” Wallace wrote.