Arete

Arete (/ˈærətiː/; Greek: ἀρετή), in its basic sense, means "excellence of any kind".^[1]  In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential.

In the poems of Homer, Arete is frequently associated with bravery, but more often with effectiveness. The man or woman of Arete is a person of the highest effectiveness; they use all their faculties—strength, bravery and wit—to achieve real results.  In the Homeric world, then, Arete involves all of the abilities and potentialities available to humans.  The concept implies a human-centered universe in which human actions are of paramount importance; the world is a place of conflict and difficulty, and human value and meaning is measured against individual effectiveness in the world.

Athletics

It was commonly believed that the mind, body, and soul each had to be developed and prepared for a man to live a life of arete.  This led to the thought that athletics had to be present in order to obtain arete.  They did not need to consume one's life, merely exercise the body into the right condition for arete, just like the mind and soul would be exercised by other means.^[7]


Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arete_%28moral_virtue%29

We can see arete in action in these video clips of American Gladiator Turbo a.k.a. Galen Tomlinson: