Opinion | What the Olympics Can Teach Us About Excellence

We are drawn to stories of individuals who not only embody the pursuit of excellence, but also have humility.

Think of the American gymnast Simone Biles, who worked through mental health issues that kept her mostly sidelined at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and went on to win three gold medals at the Paris Games. Perhaps the most iconic image from these Games occurred after one of the few gymnastics events she didn’t completely dominate, the individual floor competition. At the awards ceremony, Biles, who earned silver, and her teammate Jordan Chiles, who took bronze, bowed to show respect to the gold medal winner, Rebeca Andrade of Brazil.

Or perhaps your attention during the Games was captured by the pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis, representing Sweden, who broke his own world record while being cheered on by his fellow medalists, Emmanouil Karalis of Greece (who administered tape to a cut on Duplantis’s hand during the competition) and the American Sam Kendricks, who helped quiet the crowd before each of Duplantis’s world record attempts. In the stands, supporting and helping to coach him, was Renaud Lavillenie, the Frenchmen whose world record Duplantis first broke in 2020.

Then there was the American sprinter Noah Lyles, who earned the title of world’s fastest man by winning gold in the 100-meter dash. Shortly after, he wrote in a social media message to fans: “I have asthma, allergies, dyslexia, A.D.D., anxiety, and depression. But I will tell you that what you have does not define what you can become. Why not you!”

Excellence is not perfection or winning at all costs. It is a deeply satisfying process of becoming the best performer — and person — you can be. You pursue goals that challenge you, put forth an honest effort, endure highs, lows and everything in between, and gain respect for yourself and others. This sort of excellence isn’t just for world-class athletes; it is for all of us. We can certainly find it in sports, but also in the creative arts, medicine, teaching, coaching, science and more.

Understanding that excellence lies in the pursuit of a lofty goal as much as in the achievement of that goal allows us to expand our definition of success. Excellence is a process. That process can, and must, be renewed every day. The real reward for excellence is not the medal or the promotion, but the person you become and the relationships you forge along the way. In 2007, the psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar coined the term “arrival fallacy” to describe the trap of thinking that reaching a goal will bring lasting contentment or fulfillment. Anyone who has ever thought, “If I achieve such-and-such goal, then I’ll be happy,” understands this.