While I have no idea what happens to a professional athlete to take him from dominance to unable to perform, I do understand what it takes to completely re-define an athlete after most of the sports world has written him off. Fortitude.
Rick Ankiel quickly went from being a solid prospect to a very good MLB pitcher...but even more quickly he lost control of his pitches and lost his job as a Major League baseball player. While attempting to come back to the bigs, his ERA, in AAA no less, was over 20! Ankiel was doing everything he could, physically to pitch...eventually needing Tommy John surgery. His career was over...so it seemed.
But, Ankiel came back to the minors and pitched well. He got his control to the point where his ERA hovered around 4-5...but one bad outing set him off again and his control went away. At that point he decided to try one last thing- the outfield.
That worked out pretty well...two years after changing positions and fighting through a knee injury, Ankiel was called up at his new position about 200 ft. further from the plate than he was positioned during his previous go-around. While I have a hard time watching an entire regular season baseball game, his story makes it almost worth while. Ankiel has four homers and is batting over .300...and he's looked pretty good in the field too.
Ankiel's charging Cardinals are now only 3 games back in a division that is led by a team that doesn't want to be in the lead and another that doesn't know how to handle success. I will be rooting for the Cards almost as hard as I'll be rooting against the Yankees down the stretch.