Hey there. It's Stephen Dubner. The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are ending and if you're like me,

you have not been competing in them, watching maybe, but not competing because most of us

are normal people and world-class athletes are different. We made an episode about this difference some years ago

and I thought it might be a good time to hear it again as a bonus episode. We've

updated facts and figures as necessary.

As always, thanks for listening.

You cannot be afraid to fail.

I had never been in an environment that was so emotionally charged.

That could be the reason you're telling your second grade daughter that she's moving next week.

The fight started and I hit her as hard as I could and she actually fell down.

I have an eight-year-old son. There's no way I'd let him play tackle football.

I want to leave this sport being known as a bad mother. Maybe you are an obsessive sports fan or maybe a more casual fan and you follow just a couple

sports or teams or maybe you pay no attention to sports and you only see it when the

Olympics are on somebody else's TV.

Whichever the case, when you do see those athletes,

it's easy to think of them as existing solely in that context.

As a full-grown adult, wearing a uniform, performing under extraordinary pressure, focused

on a highly specialized task that has zero to do with daily life, or at least your daily life, but is that who those people really are?

And how they get so good at this thing they do?

When you see them on TV, all you're seeing is the outcome. But what were the inputs?

We understand that elite athletes represent some magical combination of talent and determination, But what about say luck?

Oh my gosh. Yes, absolutely. I think a ton of luck is involved.

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