Real athlete success stories are basically the only thing that still make me feel something at 3:17 a.m. when the house is dead quiet except for my dog’s snoring and the November snow tapping the window like it wants in. I’m sitting here in the same hoodie I’ve worn for four days, coffee went cold hours ago, and yeah — I’m crying again. Not pretty crying. Ugly, snotty, “why am I like this” crying. Because these stories? They expose me. Every single time.
Michael Jordan Got Cut and I Still Haven’t Recovered
Everyone knows the story, but hearing it again is like ripping off a scab I keep picking. Sophomore year, Mike gets cut from varsity. Goes home, locks himself in his room, cries like a baby. His mom basically tells him to suck it up and outwork everybody. And he does. For decades. Six rings later, he’s still talking about that cut — still using it as fuel.
I think about the time I tried out for the University of Colorado club rugby team in 2017. Got absolutely trucked in my first practice, separated my shoulder, quit before the week was over, and told everyone it was because “I had to focus on school.” Lie. I quit because it hurt and I was scared. Meanwhile Jordan took that pain and turned it into the most terrifying competitive engine the world has ever seen. It’s still there, curled and faded, judging me every day. athlete success stories
Tom Brady Was the 199th Pick and I’m Still Mad About It
Sixth round. 199th overall. Behind guys who are now selling insurance in Ohio. Tom walks into a Patriots facility where literally no one believes in him except Bill Belichick and a bottle of TB12 electrolytes. Six Super Bowls and one absurd UGGs campaign later, he’s retiring (again) and we’re all exhausted from watching him refuse to lose.
I relate too hard. In 2019 I got passed over for a promotion I bled for. Went home, ate an entire Domino’s pizza, and applied to 47 jobs that night at 2 a.m. while drunk-texting my ex. Tom Brady got passed over and just… kept showing up at 5 a.m. for the next twenty years. The gap between us is hilarious and humiliating.
Bethany Hamilton Got Her Arm Bitten Off and I Can’t Even
Thirteen years old. Shark takes her left arm. One month later — ONE MONTH — she’s back on a board. Wins a national title two years after that. I watched the Soul Surfer movie on an airplane once and had to pretend I had allergies for the entire flight.
I lost my dad in 2020 and didn’t leave the house for like six weeks. Couldn’t even do laundry. Bethany lost an arm and was paddling into 20-foot waves before the wound fully closed. Every time I think I want to feel sorry for myself I think about her catching a wave with one arm and that shark tooth around her neck and I just… shut the fuck up and go do the thing.
Wait, Here’s One Nobody Talks About: Kyle Maynard
Born with no arms and no legs. Crawled his way up Kilimanjaro. Literally crawled. On his stumps. For seven days. I watched the documentary in 2012 and threw up from secondhand exhaustion. Then I went for a run — my first in months — and made it exactly 1.8 miles before walking home crying because my shins hurt. Kyle didn’t have shins. Perspective delivered via sledgehammer.
Look, I’m not fixed. These real athlete success stories didn’t turn me into a machine. I still skip workouts. Still eat like garbage. Still ghost my own goals when they hate me. But every time I’m about to delete Strava for the 47th time, one of these stories punches me in the face and I lace up again. Barely. Whining the whole way.
Persistence isn’t pretty. It’s not Rocky music and slow-motion sweat. It’s crying in your kitchen at 3 a.m. because you failed again and deciding — for reasons you don’t even understand — to try one more fucking time tomorrow. That’s the real athlete success story that matters: not the podium, not the rings, not the comeback. It’s the quiet, pathetic, stubborn decision to show up when every cell in your body is screaming quit. Anyway my dog just farted so bad I think I’m gonna throw up. Happy Tuesday or whatever. Go do the thing. Or don’t. But if you don’t, at least be honest about it like I am.
Outbound Links:-
https://www.nba.com/news/michael-jordan-hall-of-fame-career-revisits-being-cut-from-high-school-team (Michael Jordan’s own words about getting cut from varsity)
https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft/story/_/id/26498759/tom-brady-draft-20-years-later-199th-pick-changed-everything (ESPN retrospective on Brady being picked 199th)
https://bethanyhamilton.com/shark-attack-story/ (Bethany Hamilton’s official site – her own telling of the attack and return)
https://www.climbing.com/people/kyle-maynard-no-excuses-kilimanjaro/ (Climbing Magazine feature on Kyle Maynard crawling Kilimanjaro)
https://soul-surfer.com (Official Soul Surfer movie site – for the Bethany clip context)
https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/jsep/37/3/article-p329.xml (Academic paper on persistence and grit in elite athletes – for anyone who wants the nerdy backup)
