Absolutely!
There's a guy in my town, who has run on the Ireland relay team.
He was working as a plasterer during the day, and then running at night.
When he had a shot at making an Olympics team, he quit his job. Did he get sponsorship? Yeah, a few local companies threw him a couple of quid to help him live - he might have fundraised $20,000 for his years training.
That was it.
He ran in the last Olympics.
He didn't win anything. And he's back plastering houses now. But he did his best, and he fulfilled the dream of an amateur athlete.
I know I'm proud of him.
And he's now out training junior athletes every night, after work, encouraging them with a dream of running in the Olympics.
Thank you for the nice note. Great story.