The difference between good and great athletes

I have been blessed in my sports nutrition career in the sense that I have worked with elite level athletes across a number of sports including two of the best league and union teams. For many, this kind of work would appear to be the ultimate in career success but you may be suprised to know that this is far from the case. What you learn after wokring with a range of high level athletes in the best known teams it that there are good athletes and then there are great athletes.

Good athletes are the athletes who are physically blessed and do well because it is in the nest interest of those around them that these athletes succeed.

Great athletes are a completely different ball game. Great athletes not only have the natural ability but also the drive that seeks success above all else. For great athletes, the challenge is not only to achieve success based on the teams, media and public perception but to achieve success that they thelselves have mentally defined. Great athletes have respect for their bodies, their team and their support crew. Great athletes strive for the ultimate sporting success no matter what the pay is like, no matter how demanding the training is. Great athletes are one in a thousand sporting stars. Great athletes are the swimmers, the rowers, the track athlete who receive none of the public support or financial backing the footballers and cricketers receive and yet they possess physical attributes and mental focus that far outweighs that of any footy player.

So this year, an Olympic year, pay attention to these great athletes because they are very special people and I feel honoured to work with some of them.