Before the industrialisation of the Far East, and the way the West interpreted martial arts, with the coloured belts and all, there were regional masters of these arts, who practised them as much as they could and honed their skills. However, despite all that, they never ruled out that they would one day fight against someone who never faught before, and lose.
In The Three Musketeers, Dumas tells the story of how d’Artagnan who is a young swordsman without much of an official training, from a remote region of France, eventually becomes the best fighter in France. This is despite the fact that his peers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, have much more experience and training.
The short-lived sitcom Phenom depicted a young skillful Tennis player whose happiness was ruined due to living in boarding school conditions. Even if she practised more, she lost the psychological war.
Building on the strategy for winning and the "amateur/geekdom" ethos we can see that in ~2022, most good paid sportsmen are increasingly enjoying their work, and don't mind losing too much.
Croatia were the runnerups of the 2018 FIFA world cup, despite being a small country.
Michael Phelps record/