Daniel Tetreault and I used to chat about this topic many years ago (what made champions not chat about ice cream... although we did go to get softserve from Dairy Queen in Montreal quite a lot!).

There is essentially a hierarchy/triangle diagram that explains the attributes of a world champion. I'll see if I can find it somewhere and post it, but essentially it was something like this:

Level 1: Basic fitness - Every does/can have this
Level 2: Basic skills - Everyone who plays develops these
Level 3: Specific fitness - High level training and fitness specific to the game. Only some people have this, but most people could develop this.
Level 4: High level skills - Only some people have this but a number of people could develop this with practice
Level 5: Team skills - this is specific to playing in a high level team. Not everybody gets this (for some reason). "It is far better to have a great team of players rather than a team of great players"
Level 6: Mental attitude/determination - Few people have the right aptitude and attitude and this is what separates the champions from good athletes. If all else is equal, that is, if two people have the same level of fitness, skills, etc all that separates them is something deep within their mind. This is the pinnacle of the triangle.