The Winning Edge

What makes an Olympic medalist? This was the recurring question in my mind as I watched the Winter Olympics this February. Is it sheer talent? Is it the ability to work hard? Or is it the availability of top class equipment? All athletes competing at the international level have abundance of all the above qualities. What then makes a winner? After watching individual sports for sometime I've come up with my own non-scientific list of qualities that a champion has. Let me share the top 3 with you today.

1.Passion and determination to win
2.Ability to focus
3.Mental strength

Let me illustrate these with some examples.

Ask any medalist and they'll tell you that they wanted to win very badly. They'll tell you that they never considered not winning. Think about it for a while. The minute you bring down your standards, you'll stop working as hard. So it is wise to completely eliminate that possibility. Michal Phelps has won 14 gold medals, the highest by any Olympian. Yet he wants to compete in the London Olympics, In a recent interview he said that his passion for winning is still alive.
Surely, nothing can beat that!

Of course, competitiveness needs the ability to focus. The vigorous training schedule, the stress of the actual competition and the glare of publicity tend to take your mind in a hundred different directions. But to stick to the master plan and execute requires a single minded devotion and a laser sharp focus. The altercation between the top 2 male ice skaters in the 2010 Olympics comes to mind to illustrate this point. The Russian skater Plushenko was making big waves with his statements regarding a quadruple jump. This was something that wasn't in his rival, Lysacek's routine. In almost every interview leading upto the competition, Plushenko would bring up the jump. He insisted that without it, a skating program was not fit for a men's competition. Lysacek didn't raise to the bait, he stuck to his routine and won gold. Asked later about the media pressure he admitted that he had taped a note on his mirror which read something like “Mind your Own business” Talk about focusing!

It takes mental strength to overcome a physical injury caused by a sport. Then to come back to compete and win in that sport takes greater toughness. Svidal, a Norwegians skier suffered multiple fractures on his face and a 15” laceration after a serious skiing accident. Eleven months later he won 2 events in the same venue. Most people would have been happen to function normally after accidents. It would also be considered normal if they avoided the accident site. But to compete and win internationally and do it in the same place as your accident – that requires mental toughness beyond normal. That takes a champion.

I'm not an erudite commentator of sports, But in it like life in general, determination, ability to focus and mental toughness define the winning edge.