In sports you have a team of people working with you beyond the coach. Usually you have a team doctor or access to immediate medical care during training & competition, you have a nutritionist, team psychologist, fitness instructor and many other individuals helping you manage all of it if you're able to move higher to the next level. In contrast, its much more difficult for traders to thrive under pressure because we have to do it all on our own and if we neglect one of the key variables...we fail and that pressure of failure is must more impactful in comparison to the sports athlete. Simply, athletes have a better support mechanism than traders. Yet, if someone is able to surround their trading with what an athlete has...that trader will thrive (excel) too when under pressure from the demands as a trader. wrbtrader
That view is merely a convenient truth. But it explains nothing. Moving away from sports, why do some restaurateurs choose NOT to buy into a franchise? Why do inventors continually invent? Why do disrupters continually develop disruption? Not withstanding the execution of the pursuit, Gordon Gekko's desires and goals as standalone things are not for everyone. That's the truth.
They are elite because they were always good at being elite, kept with it bit longer to elite+1. It's easy to stay doing something you are good at from the start. Damn harder to suck, and get to elite LOL