The best way to eliminate competition: Set standards for yourself high enough that when you reach them, no one else would even be close.

Once that standard is set, and you're competing against that standard, no one else matters. Your standard is so far above the others that merely beating them is like losing.


When you do this, you may be still in the same sport, but you're playing a completely different game than anyone else. Maintain that standard and keep reaching it, focus on that and that alone, and soon you won't be competing against anyone else.