HOW DID THIS DOG NOT WIN!?!?

You spend years in the shadow of your rival. You never stop working or believing. Finally it all comes together: you surpass him. For a year, maybe two, you win everything. You turn the game upside down, and your bottomless reserve of will makes you seem unstoppable. All the records are going to fall. Then, more or less suddenly, a guy you used to beat comfortably surpasses you. Long before your reign was supposed to end, you find yourself overshadowed again. You lose five straight, six straight, seven straight to the new champion, all in finals, three of them in majors. You’re 25, in what should be the peak of your prime as an athlete, and you’re right back where you started. It turns out that your relentlessness isn’t an unstoppable force. But — precisely because you have it — you keep going as if it is.
“It looks like a street fair to me… People are buying cookies, musicians are singing, people are eating. I talk to people about what they are protesting, but they can’t say. If I had to guess, I’d say that 10% are protesters, 10% journalists, 10% musicians and 70% are tourists.”