Heart of a Champion

Over the course of my life, athletics has been constant.  I have always played and watched them as if they were apart of me.  Recently, I have pondered about athletes of my generation and have thought, first of all, how lucky I have been to watch great players like Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, the Williams sisters, Michael Phelps and countless other individuals who have made their mark in their respective sport.  Second of all, to go into more depth, what is that makes an athlete truly great?

A lot of people deem greatness by numbers, some by championships, others by an athlete's influence on the game.  For me, I judge greatness on heart.  Sure, talent plays a part in being successful, but as the late great John Wooden stated, "success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."  So where does heart come into play?  Well, it's nurtured in the off-season and is different for each athlete I'm sure, but it is manifested in the closing seconds of a game, on the 18th green, in the final set at Wimbledon, in the World Series.  It happens on the game's biggest stage.

My grandfather always said, the cream will rise to the top.  You don't get to the top based soley on talent alone though, it takes heart.  Heart is what makes champions.  Heart is defined as wanting to win more than the other person and working harder than them to get there.  Heart is defined in the players I have listed above.  Sure, they are all great athletes and have talent, but they have maximized their talent through hard work and effort to become who they are now.  There's a reason people talk about the "heart of a champion" and not the talent of a champion or the influence of a champion.  It takes heart, miles and miles of heart, a la Jimmy McGinty, Shane Falco, and Chase Arthur.