My mind turned to this question of perspective while I walked among these über-athletes. They are the pinnacle of physical fitness, yes, but their fatal flaw is that they are comparative in their physicality. They can crush a metabolic conditioning workout and yet be crushed by an insignificant variable: an unusually cold metal barbell, a judge who miscounts a repetition, a bad night of sleep, an indentation in the dirt floor that makes an Olympic lift awkward.