Is it worth it?

All told, it takes roughly 15,000 to 25,000 hours of weights and skills training, another few thousand hours of travel, and hundreds of competitions to create a world-class athlete. And that is with little guarantee of success, considering how circumstances can even affect your chances, no matter how brilliant you are. Weather, transportation delays, an injury, food, the luck of the draw, political unrest, and a formidable array of other factors may impact your percentages, and you have little say about it. Given how much time and effort one puts into becoming the best, it can still be like rolling the dice. 

The question is: is it worth it?

Carl Lewis received an extra gold medal when his opponent, Ben Johnson, exhibiting yellow eyes, was found positive for banned substances and disqualified. Lewis co-owned the record for Olympic gold medals with nine, and was undoubtedly one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was even considered by the Chicago Bulls as a recruit primarily because of his long jumping skill. But his achievements would not have been as pronounced had Johnson not been caught. He would have fallen behind Mark Spitz in the era before Michael Phelps obliterated all Olympic medal records. Carl Lewis could have been a footnote in this era of short attention spans and headline-only readers.

The escalating tension between the United States and Soviet Union diminished participation in at least two Olympic Games, 1980 and 1984. Who knows how many hundreds of athletes who had trained their entire lives for the chance at sporting immortality, lost that priceless window merely because of a boycott? Isiah Thomas was one of the lucky ones. He was unable to win an Olympic medal in 1980 because of the US boycott, but was still able to have a magnificent career in the NBA, winning back-to-back titles with the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” at the end of that decade. But I’m certain he would have wanted that Olympic medal, too.

Middle-distance runner Mary Decker was considered a shoo-in for the gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics women’s 3000-meter run. At 26, she had had three chances to put herself in position to win. Now, after a string of world records, she was finally where she belonged. It would have been the perfect exclamation point to a career now in its peak. The other name worth mentioning in the 12-woman race was 18-year old Zola Budd, and not for the same reasons. Though she was prodigious, the shy, barefoot-running Budd was also South African, banned from the Olympics due to apartheid. She was hurriedly given a British passport, and got into the Olympics, where she would race against her idol, Decker.

Just past the midway point of the race, Budd cut in front of Decker, tripping up and injuring the American. Realizing what she had done and with her foot bleeding from Decker’s spiked track shoes, Bud caved in emotionally, sobbing and slowing down. Neither won. In one moment, under all that pressure, the moment of glory was gone. It was only a few months ago, 32 years later, that the two resolved their differences, in light of a new documentary on the even that inextricably linked their names in sporting history.

On the plus side, you could also get lucky. Cuban heavyweight boxer Teofilo Stevenson was one of two men to win three Olympic gold medals. Despite offers of staggering fees to turn pro, the devoted communist said “I love my country and my country loves me,” and declined all offers. The gigantic Olympian would have been a devastating pro, and would certainly have changed the fates of the likes of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and others. Some sportswriters consider him the greatest heavyweight champion who never was. It is a question we will never know the answer to. 

Nonito Donaire Jr. was a replacement opponent for Vic Darchinyan in 2007. The champion, who had beaten Donaire’s older brother, made the mistake of insulting the Filipino, and was finally handed his first loss via a brutal knockout. That win catapulted Donaire to a stellar career, peaking in 2012 with four years and Boxer of the Year citations. But think back to that one turning point, and what would have happened had he not been ready for that unexpected world-title shot.

On the other side of all that, there is a gigantic multiplier effect when one has a breakthrough win on a global platform. Firstly, millions of people around the world are effected by the success or failure. There is demonstrable scientific evidence that certain events such as Efren Reyes’s 1999 run in the first World 9ball Championship and many of Manny Pacquiao’s fights have motivated their countrymen to follow their footsteps. And if you just take a cursory look a few years later, there are more Filipino billiard and boxing champions as a direct result. Earlier, many little girls wanted to be sprinters like Lydia de Vega, gymnasts like Bea Lucero, swimmers like Akiko Thomson. Incentives aside, that may be the best payback there is for dedicating your life to being the best.