Page 98 - Grasp English B1+ (Workbook)

10 Era of the Gifted

No sports star wins a gold medal without having
a single bad day in their career. As humans, we’re
designed to learn from our mistakes, and this
pushes us to be better and succeed in life. So,
the question isn’t Are you good enough at your
chosen sport to become a world champion? But
rather Have you got what it takes to get to the top?
Many of the world’s top athletes have got where they are today because of hard work, long hours of
training and, perhaps most importantly, determination. Although some of them were natural athletes who
showed promise from a young age, others had worked tirelessly to improve their skills, and no doubt all
of them had days when they thought about giving up. Even people who have broken world records will
have had moments of self-doubt.

But, what makes an athlete a star is their mindset, that’s to say the way they see themselves and how they
manage their successes and failures. Graeme Smith, a South African cricketer who took home a number
of trophies for different teams and was the youngest ever captain of the national team, once said, “I know
I’m not going to play the way I want to every time, but I can control how I think about it.”
Also, they know that you don’t qualify for an international competition on the odd big win – reaching
an international level means that you’re consistent. This doesn’t mean doing your best every time you
participate, but it does mean trying your best each time. You have to accept that there will be “off” days
– days when you’re feeling less motivated, slower, more tired. These will often be mixed in with those days
when you’re in the lead, full of energy, and ready to take on the world.

One more tip if you want to get ahead in your sport is actually to do more sports. In a US study, Elizabeth
Vaino discovered that the majority of top athletes she looked at had done more than just the sport they
excelled at. In fact, only 18% of sports stars involved in her study had focused solely on one sport. She
suggests a couple of reasons why it’s better to do different sports: you become more athletic overall as
you use a wider range of skills and different muscles, and as a result, you could be less likely to get injured.

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