How to Know if an Athlete Loves Winning or Hates Losing More
All competitive athletes love winning and hate losing. There is no question about that. However, knowing which one trumps the other provides an important insight into one’s will to compete.
In order to win, you must compete. To put it differently, you have to risk losing before you can win. On the other hand, you can not lose simply by not competing.
Therefore, knowing whether or not an athlete loves winning more than he or she hates losing comes down to one thing. How does that athlete fundamentally feel about competition. So ultimately it comes down to the athlete answering a single question:
If you know that you are overmatched and there is a high likelihood that you are going to lose, are you still motivated to compete?
If the answer is yes, then that athlete loves winning more than he or she hates losing. If the answer is no, then that athlete hates losing more than he or she loves to win.