Olympians are a combination of both - they have the natural talents/endowment, but they also put in the maximum amount of work. Michael Phelps has an enormous wingspan, but he also trained 5-6 hours a day. If he dropped that to 3 hours a day, he would lose to someone with a slightly smaller (but still well above average) wingspan who's training 5-6 hours a day.

> Michael Phelps has an enormous wingspan, but he also trained 5-6 hours a day

Whereas a postman or police officer work 8 hours a day...

And I'm sure Michael Phelps couldn't deliver mail as well as those postmen. Leaving aside the obvious physical differences between working as a cop and olympics training, what point are you making exactly?

They are working 8 hours a day, not training 8 hours a day.

There's one Belgium (IIRC) football team member in the world cup who, before going pro, worked as a mailman. His comment about that is that people don't realise how hard mailmen have to work. I suspect his life at the top of the most competetive sport is much easier.

I practiced with a state swimming champion. We practiced same number of hours as Phelps. There was no way I would ever get to his level and there was no way he would ever get to Phelps's level. There are tons of people putting in the work for sports and very few Olympians.