“I looked straight across to the clock and I was disappointed with the time” – Cathy Freeman reflecting on her Sydney 2000 Olympics 400m gold medal (ABC iView’s Freeman documentary).
In the absence of sport for a good chunk of 2020, the void has been filled with a number of documentaries about successful athletes and teams. The personal insight from these athletes in these documentaries has been so rich, and it’s been incredible to gain an inside look into what has gone into some of the biggest victories in sporting history.
These stories have got me thinking about just what does it really take to become a world champion? Or an Olympic gold medallist? Or a member of a dynasty NBA team? What sets the ultimate champions apart from their peers? Is it simply hard work? Maybe. But all athletes, regardless of how successful they are, have all put in the hours in training to get them to that point of being called an elite athlete, and competing at the highest level of their sport. Is it pure talent that sets them apart and stands them above everyone else? Perhaps, but again, there are a large number of highly talented athletes who have never won a Grand Slam, or a World Cup, or an Olympic medal. Is it simply luck? Athletes being in the right place at the right time, avoiding injuries, getting a penalty in the 90th minute? There’s certainly an element of luck in all sporting competitions, but nobody is that lucky year after year are they?
The difference is more likely to be internal. A large chunk of their success is to do with their mentality, and the willingness to continuously push themselves to always want that one little extra gain. Whether its simply pushing for an extra kilogram in the gym, or an extra millisecond in their race time, or stretching beyond their limits to keep that next ball in play, the most successful athletes never seemed to be satisfied with “just good enough”. Everything they do in their training, their preparation, their competitions is constantly pushing their own limits to be the best. Why is it that at 39 years old, Serena Williams is still a top 10 singles player, and competing in Grand Slams, even after winning 23 already? Simple. She wants number 24. And number 25. Why did Usain Bolt compete at the 2016 Olympics, at 30 years of age, and even after winning 5 gold medals in the previous 2 Olympics? He wanted number 6. And 7. And 8. “I want to be among greats, Muhammad Ali and Pele” (https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37027477). These champion athletes live and breathe by their pursuit of always wanting more from themselves and experiencing that winning feeling again and again.
Jill Ellis, the US women’s national soccer team head coach, and 2 x world cup winner summed it up the best when she addressed her players at their 2016 Olympic team camp following their 2015 world cup victory. “Mountain tops are small and the air is thin for a reason. Because you’re not supposed to dwell on top of the mountain. It’s rented space. You get up there, enjoy the view briefly, and then you must climb again.” (From Netflix’s The Playbook: Coaches rules for life, Ep. 2, 2020). This epitomises the mentality of multiple champion athletes and teams. Enjoy the success once you’ve earned it, but then you have to come back down, and work even harder to get back up to the top again and again.
The highly successful athletes and teams, the ones with multiple gold medals, world championships, premiership flags all have one thing in common. They are simply never satisfied with just one win. Of course, there are teams who win their competition one year, but then they fail to back it up the following season. But those aren’t the teams you would consider in the conversation of successful sporting dynasties.
The insane willingness and borderline obsession with wanting more and more success is the mentality that pushes athletes to do more above and beyond what they have already done, both on and off the field, to taste that success again. An element of crazy exists within these athletes, that pushes them to the top of that mountain again and again and again.
Gee Vee
Gee Vee Sport Science and Analysis 