Prodigies

[Giant Communist Robot]

Among children who show early signs of genius, the most common seems to be musical--Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Mozart come to mind as composers, and Chopin and Menuhin as performers. Let's not forget Pat Boone.

Others appear less commonly. Of those that do, many do not fulfill their promise as adults. This doesn't seem to be the case in music. It looks like, in groups, the musicians have the highest rate of gifted children who become exceptional adults.

[dai bread]

I'd like to think you're wrong, but you're not. At least, I can't think of any prodigies in any other field who went on to become proficient in it as adults.

The really big trick, it seems, is to survive puberty with your interest intact.

[jamiebk]

Well...here is quite a list from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_prodigies
While this is not a slam-dunk authoritative source, it does provide some fodder for discussion.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

The really big trick, it seems, is to survive puberty with your interest intact.

I think he's nailed it...

[Schmeelkie]

Of course, for some sports, there's only so long your body can stand up to it. Gymnastics for instance is very demanding - and when you actually go through puberty (most are delayed) your body often goes through changes such that it is difficult to do the moves you could do before. Becoming too heavily 'endowed' can really mess with your balance. Didn't watch too much gymnastics, but wasn't there a Russian (think I saw the vault) who was attending her 5th Olympics? So she was like 30-something? that's ancient for a gymnast.

I'd think the stress in general of achieving so much at a young age would get to a lot of people. They might be happy to lead a mediocre life once they're adults.