Athletes that you never thought would make it: Part 1

There is a commonly-held belief that some champion sportsmen and sportswomen are just ‘born with it’, naturally gifted to the degree that they outstrip their nearest rivals with ease.

Think of Lance Franklin. Blessed with a larger frame than most, a seemingly instinctive knack for bagging goals, and the (innate?) ability to read a play that puts him in the right place at the right time.

But was he ‘born with it’, or is it more hard-work and fierce determination that has landed him – and so many other successful sportspeople like him – at the top of their tree?

The counter-argument to this romantic notion of divine blessing is the ten-year rule.

The ten-year rule states that to achieve eminence (be it sporting glory, landing a huge record contract, being recognised as the best oil painter in New York City), one must ply their trade for a decade, picking up the necessary skills over roughly 10,000 hours of practice.

Think of Venus and Serena Williams, who, from the tender ages of seven and eight, were hitting the court at 6am, then again straight after school, and at every spare moment in between.

Scholars angrily contest the romantic notion, citing empirical evidence a la the number of hours spent practicing your craft as a much better method of understanding genius (i.e. sporting virtuosos), but are they wrong? Are some athletes born with it, or for the purpose of this article, born without it?

It is hardly breaking new ground to suggest that some athletes have to overcome a frightful lack of ability, health problems, and a host of other barriers to achieve their goals, but here’s a look at three successful athletes, who, for whatever reason, surprised all of their onlookers with the level of success they achieved.

Steven Bradbury
I know. I’m hearing you.

“Too easy.”

“Low blow.”

You’re probably right. However, there is a lot more to Mr Bradbury’s story than a well-placed tripwire on the rink.

Born in the notoriously iceless suburb of Camden in Greater Sydney’s southwest, few would have predicted that the peroxide-tipped former backyard skate-maker, who had to borrow money from his parents to fix his car to get to training, would have been Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medalist, and later, be awarded an Order of Australia medal.

Bradbury had been an active and modestly successful speed skater since the very early 1990s, winning a gold, silver and bronze medal at various skating world championships for his efforts in relay teams.

At the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, our boy brought home his first Olympic medal, bronze in the 5000 metre relay.

His shining moment however, his middle-finger-in-the-air to the snow-covered countries of the north, arrived at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, where the 28-year-old then-Brisbane local snatched the gold medal from the jaws of defeat, when all the other finalists literally fell at the metaphorical final hurdle.

But you already know that.

What everyone forgets though, is that the now iconic skater, whose performance introduced ‘doing a Bradbury’ into the Aussie vernacular, skated his heart out to even get to the finals.

And he’d been skating competitively for more than ten years to get there.

Matt Priddis
The 2014 Brownlow Medalist has no doubt surprised many in AFL circles, be they fans of the game, coaches, or his peers, by taking the top honour in the sport.

Born in Manjimup, a rural Western Australia town of around 4000 souls, Priddis moved to Perth as a teenager and quickly rose through the ranks in Under-16 and Under-18 state-level football. Despite these signs of future greatness, he was overlooked in the AFL’s draft picks up to this point.

Priddis made his senior debut for Subiaco in the WAFL in 2003, and became a mainstay in the side for the 2004 season. Still, no draft pick for the curly-haired, hard-working midfielder.

In 2005, Priddis won Subiaco’s best and fairest award, as well as the Simpson Medal for best player in the WAFL. At this point, finally, the AFL came knocking. Priddis was selected by West Coast with the 31st draft pick of the 2006 Rookie Draft.

173 games and 56 goals later, Priddis stormed in as a rank outsider and wrenched the Brownlow from the ineligible hands of Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe, the ever-respectable Gary Ablett, and the electric Buddy Franklin.

Priddis is another case of hard work and paying your dues paving the way to sporting success. I for one am very happy for the guy – but I can’t claim I saw it coming.

Lionel Messi
We’ll go abroad to find our third feature athlete, and you’d have to go even further abroad to find enough superlatives to adequately pay tribute to the Little Master.

Born in Rosario, Argentina, to a steel worker and part-time cleaner, Messi’s footballing future looked bright, but was later viewed with cautious optimism.

The signs of talent were there for all to see. At age five, Leo played for Grandoli under the tutelage of his father. At age eight, he moved to Argentine powerhouse Newell’s Old Boys, where from 1995-1999 he only lost one match as part of a near-invincible youth squad.

At age 11, Messi was unfortunately diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency (GHD), a condition which cost $US900 per month in treatment.

Argentina’s record title-winning club River Plate were interested in signing the young playmaker/winger/striker/false 9, but were not willing to cover his medical expenses.

However, in a fortuitous turn of events, Messi had some relatives in western Catalonia (eastern Spain), who made Barcelona’s Sporting Director Carles Rexach aware of his prodigious talent.

A trial for Messi was arranged, a contract was drawn up on a napkin, and Messi and his father promptly relocated to Spain, where he has enjoyed unprecedented European and international footballing success, and his father has enjoyed a visit from the tax evasion authorities.

Messi’s success can be traced back all the way to his birth, but if not for FC Barcelona taking a chance on a sickly child, Cristiano Ronaldo may have won six straight Ballon d’Ors, and subjected La Liga to unmanageable levels of arrogance.