So, certainly the 'gift' is necessary to compete at a high level... but so is practice. You need both. In fact, my understanding is that one of the major 'gifts' that most elite athletes have is that they recover faster than the rest of us, so they can productively practice things that require muscle growth more than you or I could. That "gift" becomes largely worthless if they don't practice.

In a field you might understand better, I have a reasonably high IQ, which helps a lot when it comes to tests like the GRE and the MAT. I scored in the 95th percentile on the GRE verbal reasoning test, and the 45th percentile on the GRE math test (at age 37, with no college experience) because I have not practiced math. I mean, I'm practicing now,[1] and getting better, but I'm never going to be as good at math as I would have been if I had taken it seriously from a young age. This is especially stark for me, because I work in the computer industry and am surrounded by people who studied math from an early age, for whom it's simple and natural. Nearly everyone I work with did calculus in high school, and found it easy.

For that matter, I think I could bring up my verbal reasoning with practice, as well; I read a lot, and my intuition for what feels right in a sentence is usually right, but I fail grammar tests that require me to name the error.

[1]I'm on Khan academy now, and I'm super amused at the badges I get. I'm doing it in a linear way, rather than skipping ahead, so I'm 60% through "the world of math" challenge. The badges I got this week were all from programs created by what I think are prestigious schools... at the 8th grade level.