The ecstasy which ignites the body when a once impossible goal is achieved is what drives the athlete. Whether he wants to be the fattest man in the world, or the most graceful person on the balance beam, or the best basketball player to ever touch a ball--there is something within that makes him strive for greatness, that makes the impossible worth daring. That yearning of the body to dynamite into a billion different directions, that desire to defy mortal standards is the very essence of the athlete.
He pushes himself every day to be better, to be quicker, to be stronger. It isn't because he wants the gold, at least not initially. The true athlete, the one that is 5 years old and hates being beat in any sport by his older brother, that athlete does it because he's got something to prove. He sprints because the pace of a person walking insults him. He drives a car 200 mph because he never believed in stop lights. He blasts home runs because the architect built the fence too close to home.
The inner athlete does not distinguish between winning and losing. He cares not for titles or glory. The athlete's victory is lived in the moments of trial and error. In that moment of resurgence and of refusal to remain beaten. When the sweat is dripping out of every pore, when muscles are crying for relief, when his mind provides him with every excuse to quit--that moment when he chooses to continue. That is the athlete's victory.
Everything after that is just a matter of conclusion. But conclusion isn't the athlete's sport. Just ask Kobe Bryant, who just won his 5th NBA title, if he's done. Or Brett Favre, who will be turning 70 this year, if he's retiring. Or even Roger Federer, who holds the all-time record for majors, if he's ready to put down the racket.
To continue, to persist, to strive, to pursue--it is the single-most important thing the athlete can ever achieve.
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