Olympians and Vampires: Talent, Practice, and Why Most of Us ‘Don’t Get It’
Issue: Issue 14 • Author/s: Alessandra Buccella
Topics: Epistemology, Philosophy of Medicine, Philosophy of Sport, Theoretical philosophy
Why do some people become WNBA champions or Olympic gold medalists and others do not? What is ‘special’ about those very few incredibly skilled athletes, and why do they, in particular, get to be special? In this paper, I attempt to make sense of the relationship that there is, in the case of sports champions, between so-called ‘talent’, i.e. natural predisposition for particular physical activities and high-pressure competition, and practice/training. I will articulate what I take to be the ‘mechanism’ that allows certain people to rise to the Olympus of…