Greg Rutherford didn't have "out-of-this-world" talent but he had everything else in spades - in short, he was simply a winner in attitude and application.
That beats talent most of the time, certainly overall in the life of an athlete.
There did seem a lot of local hype in that young Greek guy's camp. But that's what most countries do when they spot the occasional "freak". Let's hope expectation doesn't burn him out
Fully agreed! Well, the perfect combo is out-of-this world talent and hard work. A perfect example of this would be Lomachenko. Lomachenko is doing things that only the combination of incredible talent and hard work can produce. If one of the two's missing, then you may achieve great things but never become an all-time great (even though this title is so overused and easily given from the American media to Negroes).
Mentally is just as tough as physically. I hope he has the desire because he has the
potential to be an olympc/world champion someday and he also just might break the world record while doing so!
Mentally he's very tough. He has a Spartan like mentality of the kind "I am the best thing ever." I wouldn't believe much of what I saw/heard in the interview if I didn't see Louis Tsatoumas speaking. Probably you are aware of Louis. One of the most talented jumpers in history (8,66m personal best) who didn't have a Spartan mentality at all. Especially in international competitions. Tentoglou has already surprassed him in international medals (Tsatoumas never won gold in any of the three majors - European, World, Olympics) and he already beats him in indoor bests. Tentoglou jumped 8,38 this year at indoors, while Tsatoumas's best was 8,23. Tsatoumas was all the things Tentoglou isn't though. Very humble, veryyyyyyyyy hard-working, the definition of what an athlete is supposed to be. Still, he flopped in big games even if he was a favorite to win a medal (let's not forget that in 2007 he had the world's best performance).
I wouldn't believe any of the hype if I didn't hear Tsatoumas saying that Tentoglou has broken his national outdoors record (8,66m) several times already during training. Tsatoumas is a very serious and humble guy, he wouldn't talk any smack. So, it's very possible that Tentoglou is already jumping around 8,80m as his coach claims? I am no expert whatsoever, but at the jump I posted his technique during landing is painfully awful, isn't it? He literally laid his whole back, even his head touched the dirt. This jump was closer to 8,60 or so if he landed better, right? The boy's super talented. I just hope his head is where it should be and sky is the limit for him.
For closure, I would like to say one thing about Tsatoumas. I liked the guy very much. We have the same age, I met him in person once in a coffeehouse in Athens. Very likable man. Regardless, I consider him one of the two "greatest" underachievers in the history of Greek sports. Usually, Greek athletes have to overcome incredible difficulties (lack of money, endorsements, equipment, infrastructure etc.) that your average American or Western athlete never has to face (yet Negroes will still complain of how "hard" they have it there). All the medals and titles they have managed to win in many different sports is due to personal hard-work and the so called "Greek fighting spirit." Tsatoumas lacked this spirit and flopped on international stage. He didn't have what Kenteris or Stefanidi or even Tentoglou now have.
Same goes for Vlasios Maras. What a fine gymnast this dude was. When he was competing at the Olympics, he blacked out completely. He didn't have the spirit of the
GREAT Eleftherios Petrounias, who's slowly but surely goes down in history as the greatest male gymnast ever (worldwide, that is). Taken everything into account, the Greek athletes have to overcome a lot of obstacles to achieve something on a global scale. Tsatoumas and Maras lacked this winning spirit, unfortunately.