13 Olympians and Paralympians Talk About What It Takes To Be a Winner

With the Rio Olympics in full swing, we’re hearing a lot about winning. Who won the gold or who’s predicted to win the next meet or match or game? Which begs the question, what does it take to be a winner? And how do these champions turn their inevitable losses into magnificent wins?

We wanted to know, so we asked 13 Olympians and Paralympians—past and present—about what winning means to them.

Mary Lou Retton, gymnastics
“These days especially winning for me is thinking that I don’t have to win at everything that I do. It really is about balance. It’s about being happy, it’s about finding passion in your life and literally having happiness and serenity.”

Nadia Comaneci, gymnastics

“You become a winner when you go through a lot of losing experiences and you learn from them, and try to get better to fix what went wrong. All of those experiences that make up your journey are much more important than that one day of winning (which is fun too). I tell a lot of gymnasts that I was not perfect all of the time, I made mistakes, I fell from the beam, and that’s all a part of the entire experience. To be a winner means to know what you want and that you’re willing to do anything to get that!”

Connor Fields, BMX cycling

“Winning, or competing, I say don’t do it if you’re not gonna do it with your heart and soul 100 percent. Granted, there are going to be days when you don’t feel good. And there are going to be days when it’s more work. But those are the days that make the difference. The easy days don’t make a champion. The hard days are what make a champion.”

Missy Franklin, swimming

“I feel like I’ve won—regardless of what my results are in the pool—if I know that I’ve handled myself in the most respectable way that I know how to. It’s the way that I was raised. I would so much rather be known by the person that I am outside of the pool than the swimmer that I am inside of it. And so, regardless of what happens, whether I win or I lose, whether I break a world record or whether I add five seconds, if I can still show the most sportsmanship that I know how to show, if I can still respect the people that I’m competing against, respect my teammates, be kind, show love to everyone that I’m encountering, then that’s really a win for me.”

Kayla Harrison, judo

“Winning is a privilege. Not everyone gets to be a winner. Every time you show up to a tournament, there’s a chance that you could lose. But if you prepare to the best of your ability and you give it 100 percent, then those chances become a lot less likely. I think I learned the most from the times I didn’t win. Failure is my fuel. Every time a loss happens, it’s not pretty, and I think if you talk to any Olympian or any champion they’d feel the same way. But I also know that when I lose, I grow, not just as an athlete, but as a person. It helps me work on the things that I need to work on and refocus and re-energize and really keep that fuel and that fire going for the next time, the next challenge, the next match.”

Abby Johnston, diving

“Winning is more the journey of getting there and [overcoming] the obstacles that I’ve faced. And the people who have helped me!”

Meb Keflezighi, marathon

“Winning is the peace of mind that I’ve done the best I’m capable of running. You run a personal best and not get a medal—are you going to complain? You’ve just run the best time you ever did.”

Greg Louganis, diving

“When I first started mentoring the U.S. diving athletes, I’d ask them, ‘What’s your ultimate diving goal?’ And they’d say, ‘Making the Olympic team!’ I’d say, ‘And then what?’ And they said, ‘Uh, make the Olympic team?’ I’d say, ‘Don’t you want to get a medal, don’t you want to win?’ I challenged them to devote a minimum of 20 percent of their training to training as if they were already at the Olympic Games. It really kind of tweaked their thinking about their training and what they were doing in order for them to feel almost like they’d been there, so they could relax.”

Alex Massialas, fencing

“Winning takes hard work and dedication. Not just that, but passion. The hard work and dedication usually follow the passion. You can work hard your whole life and dedicate yourself to something, but if you don’t really love it, don’t really enjoy doing it, it’s hard to be truly successful. You’ll come silver, you’ll come bronze—you’ll be up there, you’ll be really good. But to truly be the best you’ve got to have the extra edge, and a lot of that has to do with passion.”

Shannon Miller, gymnastics

“I think for me, growing up, and for me even to this day, a winner is someone who gives it 100 percent every time out. And that was kind of the understanding when I grew up. My parents did not care if it was a math test or a meet, you go out and you give it 100 percent, and if you do that, you can be very proud of what you’ve done. I hope I can impart that to my children as well. The gold medals are wonderful but they’re really just a symbol of not only the hard work you put in each day, but the hard work of the entire team behind you—the coaches, your parents, the community and the sponsors.”

Brad Snyder, Paralympic swimmer

“So winning, to me, means that you made a decision to challenge yourself to do something you didn’t think you were capable of, and by winning, you did that. You proved to yourself that you are bigger, you are better, you grew, you developed. You did something great. The important thing is, don’t lay back on that—allow winning to just be winning. Once you’ve won, pick a new challenge, pick something harder.”

Melissa Stockwell, paralympic swimmer and paratriathlete

“I think to be a winner, you have to be physically and mentally tough. You have to be dedicated every day. You have to put in the time, put in the hours, put in the training. You know, being a winner isn’t always being at the top of the podium. Being a winner can be overcoming something that comes your way that you don’t expect. There are a lot of ways to define being a winner, but it’s really just you have to believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you.”

Dana Vollmer, swimming

“Winning definitely goes far beyond just the gold medal. It’s about who you are as a person. It’s about the respect that you show others and the willingness to help the next generation below you. And it’s in how you speak about your family and the supporters that are there with you through everything. It’s acknowledging that winners aren’t created on their own, that it’s a family and a team, and it’s the group behind you that helps you get there.”