Haha, competing books! For sure an abnormal (in a good way) work ethic, strong motivation, big time self-belief can all make up for some talent gap, but I can't ignore talent. Like I said, even in very young kids, you can see it. There's a kid down the road who's 8, and he's absolutely an athlete. Destroys all the neighborhood kids in every game/sport they play, he's fast, little dude does standing backflips on grass. Don't know how it will play out for him as he grows up, but he's got athletic talent other kids clearly don't have.
As for the cat 3 who trains to hard for his own good, yes for sure that happens, agree with that.