The modern Olympics evolved from sports competitions held in ancient Greece. It holds a special place in the history of sports. Ancient sports competitions also flourished in other places; ancient China, Egypt, and Rome are good examples. Cave paintings found in Lascaux, France suggest that sports have been around for a longer period of time.
The advent of professional sports have produced stronger, healthier, wiser, and insanely athletic players. Gone are the days when one has to have a day job to be able to support a fledgeling sports career.
Corresponding to this boom in professional sports are advances in ways to
help improve player performance. This has raised the bar to a different level – much, much higher today than it was a decade ago.In spite of this, something hasn't changed: the people who take up sports and the physical, mental, and emotional conditioning they go through to surpass themselves. Their work pays tribute to the great sportsmen of ancient times who provided the genesis of what we now call the modern athlete.
The Elite Athletes Of Today
To name a few: Leo Messi, Lebron James, Usain Bolt, Justin Verlander, Novak Djokovic and JJ Watt fall under this category. And, on the women's side, Serena Williams, Missy Franklin, Ye Shiwen, Gabby Douglas (the list goes on and on) dominates in their own turfs. They can, literally, run rings around the competition. We expect them to win every time. They, themselves, expect to perform outrageously well that failing to do the impossible, we denounce their sub-par performance.
It would be absurd if a player, aside from James became the 2013 regular season MVP in the NBA. It would be tragic and a travesty. Few people would contest this. Someone doing so invites death threats, as Fred Hickman, the one who cast the lone opposing vote against Shaq in the 2001 regular season MVP balloting, surprisingly found out.
Peak Performance Is Practical
There is a science and an art in producing top level performers not only in sports, but in any field; be it in the arts, business, science, and in military organizations. More importantly, we can access the technology that these athletes utilize to achieve success in our life.
Sports psychology, peak performance psychology, and coaching are just some of the things that we can tap into for us to utilize the techniques used by elite athletes in achieving our goals.
From a personal point of view, I would not be using peak performance tools to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, but I can use it in equally important aspects of life: work ethic, goal setting, visualization, managing stress, coping with failure, dealing with emotions, coaching, all fall under peak performance, yet these concerns aren't exclusive to professional athletes.
We can, if we want, use the methods available to improve ourselves, our children, the organizations we belong to, the community we live in. The possibilities are endless. Doing so would produce our own brand of self-realization. Doing so would produce another M.V.P. in a a field far more important than sports entertainment. Performance in the game of life.
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Sources and references:
[1] 50 Most Dominant Athletes Alive, Business Insider Website
[2] Lakers Now, Los Angeles Times Website