Do You Think Performance and Performance Are Unique?

i wondered if do you consider performance and high-end say sporting performance as simply a functional end of what someone is asking of their body or do you see it as somewhat unique at all compared to say oleiman. Most of my working elite performance has been with people who are staring down the barrel of early retirement because of persistent pain  because of this competing objective in their system of pain and pain or performance. i think that's where the principles of the human still apply because those people are humans right?