<p class="ingestion featured-caption">Getty Images; Natalie Ammari/BI</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Athletes at the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/how-to-watch-olympics-live-stream-paris-2024">2024 Paris Olympics</a> achieved incredible feats of human performance. But how do they do it?</li><li>Elite athletes like Simone Biles have changed their bodies and minds through years of training.</li></ul><p>The <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paris-2024-olympics-opening-ceremony-important-moments-explained-2024-7">Olympics are a showcase</a> of all the incredible things the human body can do.</p><p>Watching the 2024 Paris games, we found ourselves wondering, "What makes <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/youngest-and-oldest-athletes-competing-at-paris-summer-olympics-2024-7">Olympic athletes</a> so different from the rest of us?"</p><p>Yes, many of them have genetic advantages — they're tall enough, short enough, or bendy enough to compete at the highest level. And yes, they spend <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-3-hardest-olympic-sports-according-to-experts-2021-7">years and years training</a>.</p><p>For both of these reasons, Olympians are just <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-phelps-rio-olympics-body-swimming-2016-8">built differently</a> on a macro and micro level.</p><p>So how does an athlete like Team USA <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/simone-biles-scary-video-bad-twisties-tokyo-olympics-2021-8">gymnast Simone Biles</a> do it? Science gives us a few hints.</p>