There is a mystery about world champions that stems from the inability of common folk to imagine how otherwise normal persons can get to be so special and successful in what they do.
The mystery is even greater for those who have occupied the same existential space as the champion. Top achievers do appear every now and then, and necessarily from the midst of what is common, familiar and even banal to the rest of us.
And yet, there can in essence be no mystery. The outstanding and the ordinary must share most things. It is just that some-times, elements come together in salient ways to produce a success that bad seemed impossible up to that point. A champion gets born, and the rest of us stand in awe because the space from which he or she came does not seem all that unique.
But it must be unique.
