“I believe that every person is born with talent.” – Maya Angelou

One of things I love about the Olympic Games is when a total outsider wins a gold medal.

In other words, you have an athlete who is almost a total unknown in their sport and they beat the best athletes in the world.

Here’s a great example:

Nobody was watching Ahmed Hafnaoui from Tunisia in lane eight of the Olympic pool when he started the 400 metres freestyle final.

He was the slowest qualifier and just made it into the final by 14-hundredths of a second, landing him in the far outside lane.

However, he turned out to be the unexpected winner of the 400 metres freestyle final at the Tokyo Games, beating a field of faster and far more experienced swimmers.

The 18-year-old finished in three minutes, 43.26 seconds. Australia’s Jack McLoughlin earned silver and American Kieran Smith took bronze. The top three were separated by less than a second after the eight-lap race.

So, a totally unknown Tunisian swimmer beats the highly favoured American and Australian swimmers.

One of the interesting things about swimming is that the fastest qualifiers swim in the middle of the pool. And the slowest qualifiers are on the outside lanes. And some commentators noted that the faster swimmers didn’t actually notice how quick the 18-year-old Tunisian swimmer was actually going. 

So, they totally overlooked him.

This a great reminder that all of us have great talents and amazing abilities that we often overlook. And when we use them, we can do remarkable things in our lives.

Take Action:

What remarkable abilities are you not using?