Born or bred?

And then it hit me like a rock. There was no denying it, at least not in my mind. Champions are born. You cannot grow a champion, you cannot make a champion, and you can not breed a champion, and you cannot teach champion. It is crystal clear.
You can however, do all of the above for a winner. But what a winner is not is a champion. Anyone can win something but that does not make them a champion. A champion finds a way to win all of the time, and when they do not win you still recognize them as a champion because that's how they carry themselves. When it gets close to crunch time, when everything matters twice as much a champion goes to work. A winner may be great for 95% of a season but the problem would occur in that final 5%. A champion never fails in the final 5%. If a champion fails 95% of the time, the 5% that they succeed are the championships, the ones that count.
You cannot make a champion because they lack undescribable characteristics. A champion does not understand certain things. A champion does not understand pressure because they do not feel it. The only person that has a reason to feel pressure is the champion because if you are not the champion, then no one expects you to win. So for everyone else how can they fold under pressure that does not exist? How can they make themselves apply enough pressure to themselves that they can fold?
A champion does not notice pain, not until it is over. When they hurt they get through it, they find a way because that is the bottom line. There is no other option stopping will not satisfy the growing hunger, performing at a sub par level will most certainly never satisfy the hunger.
Most of all a champion cannot be made because you can't teach people to believe. They either have it or they don't. A champion sets goals, and knows that they will achieve them. There is never a doubt in their mind that they cannot achieve a goal. They understand that the task at hand is a hard one. They realize that work, time, sweat, blood, pain, and anger must accompany their goals but in the end they know it will happen. The problem with a simple winner, or another person is that they don't have that belief. They are the first one's to make goals, the first one's to share them. But in the end they second guess themselves to the point where self-consciously they could not achieve their goal even if they were the most prepared, best trained, and best pure athlete.
Some may call it choking, something that a champion cannot fathom, it is not possible for them. But in my mind, it's a lack of belief. A champion who believes will never fail, it is simple they can be an inferior talent but in the end just believing they will achieve success will allow them.