I think his point is that what we usually think of as "gifted" is limited. We tend to think that "gifted" means what you are born with and nothing more, but his point is that "gifted" includes the ability, or lack thereof, to improve on what we were born with, among other things.
And it is a whole book, so that one example hardly explains his thesis, which is backed up by lots of research.
It's comforting to believe that hard work will always pay off, but even though hard work definitely helps, it's not as much an explanation of athletic, or any kind of, success, as we might like.
