Over the last few weeks many of us have been focused on and excited by all the happenings at Olympics Rio 2016. I personally take my hat off to any athlete who manages to qualify for the Olympics.

It is astounding that there were more than 11 000 athletes competing this year and only 306 events, with just short of 1 000 medals up for the taking! Therefore each athlete had less than a 10% chance of getting a medal. So the question I have posed is what does it take to get a medal?

I am always brought back to the memory of Chad le Clos beating Michael Phelps in the men’s 200m Butterfly in London 2012. It was amazing how Chad was lying 3rd at the last turn (almost a second behind) and somehow he was able to inspire something within himself to pull through and win by 0.05 seconds. Fast-forward 4 years…Chad finishes 4th in the same event and almost 1,5 seconds slower than his previous time. What happened?

This year I got the chance to watch the men’s coxless pair (Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain) win a silver medal for South Africa. They dug deep to come back from lying 4th at the ¾ mark and to finish so well ahead of decent competition; #SoProud! However they were not able to catch the New Zealand team of Bond and Murray who were able to retain their title despite finishing 51 seconds slower than their 2012 record. They were hardly out of breath at the end, while Keeling and Brittain were huffing and puffing. It will be interesting to see how well Keeling and Brittain place in Tokyo 2020.

What a way to finish the medal haul for South Africa with gold for Wade Van Niekerk in the Man’s 400m and Caster Semenya in the women’s 800-metre! Both of them finished more than a second faster than their nearest rival. What a humble man Wade is, with a simple powerful message – “run your own race!”. And if you remember carefully Caster Semanya managed a silver medal in 2012 with a time that was 2 seconds slower than this year! With all the controversy and challenges she has faced I was humbled by her focus, determination and performance. I am excited for her future prospects.

I have been drawn, through the commentary, to the athletes who are able to hold their title 4 years later, and obviously the amazing success of Bolt and Phelps who can do so more than 8 and 12 years later respectfully. So herein lies my thought…I do acknowledge the training someone would undertake to get to the Olympics, yet if you are able to get a medal from the engagement of inspiration will you be able to sustainably defend your title?

For the purposes of this article I define performance as the true usage of psychology and physiology to achieve a desired result, whereas inspiration is a false representation of performance based on a random and not reproducible ability to engage something extra within your psychology and or physiology to get that result. Now as much as I understand that there are perhaps other factors involved (the use of enhancing substances and the like) I question which is more important – the flash in the pan of inspiration or the sustainability of performance?