New Delhi, Aug. 29 -- After a lifetime of witnessing it and hearing it, it's still somewhat bewildering. "More?" we wonder as if their appetite is outlandish. How do these people need more goals, runs, wins, titles, medals? Why take roughed up bodies back into the cauldron of pain? Why risk defeat and a stain on a reputation? Why not retire?

We never say this to adventurers charting rivers or those clawing up mountains. We never say high enough or far enough to them. But we say this to athletes who are explorers too, gleefully and crazily venturing where others don't dare. Would Michael Phelps ever get to 23 Olympic golds, and LeBron James to 43,440 points, or Katie Ledecky to 14 unbeaten years in the 800m freestyle, unless they were inf...