Just thought I'd add a comment as someone who came top of the state in my grade in multiple olympiad competitions:
I always felt that a large part of my advantage came from having a strong understanding of maths from the ground up.
I felt that a lot more people could have gained the same level of understanding as I did if they had been willing to work hard enough, but I also felt that almost no-one would, because it'd be an incredibly hard sell to convince someone to engage in years-long project where they'd go all the way back to kindergarten and rebuild their knowledge from the ground up.
In other words, excellence is often the accumulation of small advantages over time.
I always felt that a large part of my advantage came from having a strong understanding of maths from the ground up.
I felt that a lot more people could have gained the same level of understanding as I did if they had been willing to work hard enough, but I also felt that almost no-one would, because it'd be an incredibly hard sell to convince someone to engage in years-long project where they'd go all the way back to kindergarten and rebuild their knowledge from the ground up.
In other words, excellence is often the accumulation of small advantages over time.