Today we often praise athletes who give it all, who deny their deficiencies and overcome the odds with sheer willpower.  Sportswriters often celebrate those who push harder, who hustle the most, who play beyond their suspected limitations.  Baron Pierre de Coubertin reflected on this phenomenon late his life, as he granted a long interview on “The Origins and Limits of Athletic Progress” to BZ am Mittag in 1936.  He recognized that those who don’t push their gifts to the full limits are often eliminated.

“At every Olympiad ... I have always seen how strength of will and poise have ‘forced’ a success, in some way. Sometimes the most physically gifted athletes are eliminated by others who, though less well off in that regard, used greater energy and force of will to achieve their victories.”