It depends on the sport. For example Javier Sotomayor (high jumper) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Sotomayor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Sotomayo

It depends on the sport. For example Javier Sotomayor (high jumper) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Sotomayor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Sotomayor - made it from 0 to no.5 in 4 years, and there are other examples in this particular sport where people made it in 2 years or so. That's one of the reason I don't appreciate any sport, it depends on lots of factors apart from your mental discipline (golf is more or less only mental discipline OTOH).