Watching elite athletes compete—whether in this summer's World Cup or at the Olympic and Paralympic Games—it's easy to see only what's visible. Tangible. I'm just as interested in what’s not so visible and not so tangible. The struggle. The heart. The doubt. The dedication. The resilience. The grace. The tears. The commitment. The decision to keep pursuing excellence. In my recent conversation with two-time Paralympian Sophia Herzog-Gibb, we talked about more than swimming. We talked about what sport builds inside the athlete.

Sophia graduated from high school early to train at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center. Years of early mornings, double workouts and relentless discipline led her to a silver medal at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. But what shined through for me even more than that medal… is Sophia’s mettle.

Sophia described herself in the run up to Rio as being “the hunter.” One day, in advance of going to Rio, Sophia put up a time that, if official, would have ranked her near the top in the world. She surprised herself that day, and it gave her confidence. No one knew, so no one saw her coming. She showed up in Rio, competed with the best and came home with hard-earned hardware.

By the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo (in 2021), she had become what she described as “the hunted.” Expectations had changed, so the pressure was different. But she showed up and wowed again.

What I find to be the most instructive is what happened before Tokyo and after that second stellar Paralympic performance. Sophia, like so many athletes, was entering the workforce without traditional work experience. But what she entered with was discipline, composure under pressure and the ability to keep showing up when things get hard. She had athletic skills and life skills. She had the grit to find her next “pool,” the guts to dive in and the self-belief to know that she could do it, that she would swim.

As we watch the world's best compete on the biggest stages this summer, it's worth remembering we're seeing only a shard of their story. The time that athlete is seen on the field or in the pool can be measured in hours, minutes or seconds. The time and effort that athlete invested to become the mosaic of the person they are is measured in years. We can devote ourselves to the pursuit of something, and sometimes we can even achieve it. And when we do, then that achievement almost becomes a tile of the mosaic, a “square one” all its own.

Can we do it again? Once we achieve something — a mountain climbed, a design delivered, a degree or a diploma — can we carry the excellence forward? To answer that is to call on the invisible elements inside ourselves again. The same ones an athlete calls up. The struggle. The heart. The doubt. The dedication. The resilience. The grace. The tears. The commitment. The self-trust. The decision to keep pursuing excellence. As we advance, we learn the greatness is in the trying and the going for it and the “daring greatly.” Then the next step of greatness is carrying hard lessons forward every time we start over, again and again and again.

Maybe that's what our efforts and experiences are really doing. Maybe they’re not just helping you achieve something. Maybe they’re assembling the light and glimmers and sharp edges too that make you uniquely you. So that you can get up again tomorrow morning to pursue excellence again. Excellence, in harmony with grace.

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