The strongest swimmer still depends on conditions that make practice possible.

Ability is never entirely personal. Behind anyone who is good at something sits a pool that stayed open, a lift that was available, hours that were not spent earning, and someone who did the driving. None of that appears in the performance, which is why excellence looks like a property of a person rather than of a situation. Remove the conditions and the same person produces much less.

Be a little slower to credit yourself, and a little slower to blame someone else for not having got there. Where you can, protect the conditions: the open pool, the funded hour, the person who could not attend without a lift.