Maybe natural talent exists but I don't think it's as common as people think.

I am often told I'm a natural athlete - I feel like saying "you take my back and my knee and spend the years I've spent cycling everywhere for transport and all the hours I've spent being active in one sport or another and (1) you'll realize a lot of effort has gone in - my fitness didn't just evolve of it's own accord and (2) It continues to take effort and often involves PAIN which wouldn't be worth it to most people (3 ) I sucked at everything when I first started just like everyone else and I go back to that level every time I'm injured.

I'm not a natural athlete I just like being active whether I'm successful or not. Mostly chain smokers tell me I'm a natural athlete and I think that's telling.

I think what might be natural is the level of interest in a sport or anything really which predisposes people to wanting to take the time to improve.

There's a woman at my work who is very unfit. I was talking about some Kenyan marathoners I met and how fit they are and how many hours of training they do. Her comment was something like "well it's easy for them because they get sponsorship".

It really annoyed me because it's soooo much harder for them than it would be for most first world citizens. They need to work to support huge families and compete against hundreds of other desperate poor athletes, run hours everyday without shoes and avoid a myriad of illnesses in a country with bad health care to compete before they are in a position to earn any sponsorship.

Still once they get it some fat woman sitting on her overfed arse in an office somewhere is happy to write off all their efforts as if it was easy for them because now they have a very small amount of support which still doesn't equate to what a lot of us are born into.

Some people accuse others of being natural athletes because it gives them an excuse as to why they aren't what they would like to be that's not got anything to do with the effort they've put in.

As Monkey said there will be people who have talent and are not nurtured to forfill their full potential. People in this situation are the last people to accuse others of not having to work for thier results though. Those are the people who know that even with natural talent everything worth anythign takes effort and hard work.