History Determinator / RealLife

* Andy Murray ended 2016 as the number-1 tennis player in the world, having spent the majority of his career in the shadows of UsefulNotes/RogerFederer, UsefulNotes/RafaelNadal, and UsefulNotes/NovakDjokovic. [[YankTheDogsChain Then in 2017, he began suffering from a recurring hip injury that curtailed his career]] until just before the 2019 Australian Open, he called a tearful press conference in which he described the chronic pain his injury was causing him - he struggled to even ''get dressed'' - and admitted the Australian Open might be his last tournament. He was knocked out in the first round of that tournament... in a five-set match that lasted ''four hours''. Instead of retiring, Murray had an operation to resurface his hip, and not only did he become the first player ''ever'' to have such an operation and carry on playing professionally, he proceeded to win the European Open just months after making his singles comeback and despite losing the first set of the final 6-3.

* One SignatureScene of the Usefulnotes/OlympicGames, which have an endless supply of athletes that never gave up, is the 1984 women's marathon, where Swiss runner [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBasZWjd92k Gabriela Andersen-Schiess]] approached the finishing line visibly broken down and barely standing after running 42 kilometers under the scorching Californian sun and waved away medical personnel who rushed to help her until she crossed the finish line.

* Nelson Mandela. 20 years in government jail makes the average tough person into an empty shell, provided he/she survives. 20 years in government jail made terrorist Nelson Mandela the President of South Africa, as well as a hero the world over.

* Nintendo: In the early 1980s, only about a decade since Nintendo changed into a video game company, and only a few years after Donkey Kong, the entire video game industry fell apart, mostly because of the infamous Atari Game E.T. Instead of giving up, Nintendo buckled down, kept releasing games, and using methods, including packaging their system the NES (or Famicom in Japanese) and the first Super Mario Bros game, with a toy robot named ROB. Nintendo proceeded to bring the entire gaming industry out of the crash, and made them even more popular, since gaming could be done at home, instead of having to use arcades. All of gaming has to thank Nintendo for its perseverance.

*** Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and his troops. Three-dozen men, Yakov, and a one five-story partially-bombed-out apartment building versus everything the entire German Army could throw at them; supposedly, the German bodies piled up so high outside that they could be used ''as cover.'' And, at the end of t and prevailing. Infinity Ward made the battle into a level and let Pavlov get an appearance on the very first ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' game. Allegedly, Germans lost more people than in battle for Paris, and the bodies piled up on each other so high that both sides could (and several times did) use them for ''cover.''

* Contrary to the popular "humans are the {{Squishy Wizard}}s of the Animal Kingdom" concept, our prehistoric ancestors didn't just use intelligence and tactical teamwork to kill much stronger and faster beasts. They also used what is called ''persistence hunting'' wherein through superior stamina, they wounded and chased creatures to their exhaustion. Domestication of the dog and horse took things UpToEleven. Modern humans have lost this thanks to agriculture, technology, and dietary changes, though persistence hunting can still be observed in isolated African hunter-gatherer bushman tribes that didn't have those.

* Japan's figure skating ace, Yuzuru Hanyu, (who, incidentally, idolizes Plushenko) is no slouch either. He was diagnosed with asthma at the age of two, survived the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011 (having to flee his collapsing home rink with his skates on), skated his free program at the 2014 Cup of China visibly disoriented and bandaged around the head after a terrifying collision during warmups, fell five times, ''nearly won the gold anyway'', and won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2018 while on painkillers for his injured ankle in November 2017. Even after his injury, he is still hellbent on being the first person to land the quadruple axel in competition (a feat not yet accomplished as of June 2021). What he has to show for his Determinator spirit: nineteen broken world records (the most times among singles skaters since the scoring system changed in 2004), first Asian singles skater to win Olympic gold and the youngest singles skater ever to do so, first singles skater to achieve a Super Slam[[note]]winning all major competitions in his senior and junior career[[/note]], the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition, among ''many'' other honors and accolades (including actual medals). He also very nearly competed against his childhood idol, had Plushenko not withdrawn from Sochi 2014 - the event where Hanyu won his first Olympic gold. He is not considered one of, if not the greatest, singles skater in history for no reason. He eventually announced his transition to professional skating [[note]]skaters who compete in events such as the Olympics, the Grand Prix series, etc. are called "amateur skaters" because they only get prize winnings, not a salary or contract. "Professional skaters" are skaters who perform only in ice shows or have lost their ISU eligibility.[[/note]] on July 19, 2021, leaving the competitive field long after all of the senior skaters that were competing when he made his senior debut had gone. He ''still'' doesn't think of himself as having "retired", merely going to a higher place in the sport to achieve his dream of landing the quad axel, without being restricted to competition rules.
--> I bet my life to skate, every time. I think, that's the mission of my life. That's why I was born here. [...] I was born for my skate.
%% This is a direct quote with grammatical errors preserved, as Hanyu is not a native English speaker. Please do not correct the grammar.

* Japan's figure skating ace, Yuzuru Hanyu, (who, incidentally, idolizes Plushenko) is no slouch either. He was diagnosed with asthma at the age of two, survived the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011 (having to flee his collapsing home rink with his skates on), skated his free program at the 2014 Cup of China visibly disoriented and bandaged around the head after a terrifying collision during warmups, fell five times, and ''nearly won the gold anyway'', and won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2018 while on painkillers for his injured ankle in November 2017. Even after his injury, he is still hellbent on being the first person to land the quadruple axel in competition (a feat not yet accomplished as of June 2021). What he has to show for his Determinator spirit: nineteen broken world records (the most times among singles skaters since the score system changed in 2004), first Asian singles skater to win Olympic gold and the youngest singles skater ever to do so, first singles skater to achieve a Super Slam[[note]]winning all major competitions in his senior and junior career[[/note]], the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition, among ''many'' other honors and accolades (including actual medals). He also very nearly competed against his childhood idol, had Plushenko not withdrawn from Sochi 2014 - the event Hanyu won his first Olympic gold on. He is not considered one of, if not the greatest, singles skater in history for no reason.

* An old example of boxing in the Usefulnotes/OlympicGames was Mauro Cía of Argentina. In the 1948 Olympics, he had a campaign of increasing injury, as after the lost semifinal the coaching staff did not want to clear him for the third-place match,[[note]]something abolished in the following Games; ever since, both losing semifinalists get bronze medals[[/note]] as Cía had two swollen black eyes, cuts in the cheeks and eyebrows, and a right hand so swollen the boxing glove did not fit. Yet he went for the bronze medal match and won, as the opponent who was leading up to that point fell trying to dodge, broke his ankle, and couldn't get up to the count of ten.

* For all of his faults, Eric Lindros could be argued to be one of these. A center in the NHL, playing for the roughest team in the league at the time (and still), and playing on the most feared line of the 90s, went through 6 concussions, including 3 or 4 that happened WITHIN WEEKS of recovery from the previous one. And the major reason he retired? Many teams were allegedly worried about picking up, not only his overpriced salary but his gratuitous medical bills as well.
* Going along with the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]], Ray Bourque, full stop. If you can go 22 seasons long, just to finally get your name on [[UsefulNotes/TheStanleyCup Lord Stanley's Cup]], you are more than worthy of this title. That's not even mentioning that he has the record for most goals, points, assists as a defenseman and the record for most shots on goal period.

* During the 1976 UsefulNotes/FormulaOne season, UsefulNotes/NikiLauda was the reigning champion and one of the two main challengers for the title, along with James Hunt. Then at the German Grand Prix, Lauda suffered a horrific crash in which he sustained severe facial burns, as well as lung damage from toxic fumes. His injuries were so severe that he was read the last rites... and yet he was back racing just ''six weeks later'', with his head swathed in bloody bandages, ''and came fourth''. He did, admittedly, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere pull out of the season-ending Japanese GP due to inclement weather conditions]], allowing Hunt to win the title by a single point... but then he returned for 1977 and won his second world title with ease.

* Pick any African-American who's broken the color barrier in any field, be it business, the military, sports, whatever. We're talking real men and women who've taken abuse that would reduce whole platoons of Marines to tears. Famous examples: The Navy's first Black Master Diver Carl Brasher, as portrayed in ''Film/MenOfHonor'', UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, UsefulNotes/JackieRobinson, and most obviously Dr. UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr

* UsefulNotes/SimoHayha, the TropeCodifier for a Cold Sniper (and a OneManArmy, having over 700 confirmed kills). An ordinary Finnish farmer, when the UsefulNotes/WinterWar broke out took his iron-sighted Mosin Nagant and went to town on the Russian Army, killing 542 Soviet soldiers with his rifle and 200 with a submachine gun. He was able to survive counter-snipers, enemy platoons, artillery barrages sent only to kill him. When one Soviet sniper got lucky and hit him in the chin, he managed to kill him and return with his unit before fainting. He was in a coma for 11 days and when he woke up, the war had just ended. He lived until 2002, at the age of 96. Was nicknamed [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The White Death]] by the Soviets.

* Back in the world of Formula One, Nigel Mansell was renowned for his inability to admit defeat; perhaps most famously at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix. ''Everything'' gave up that race. There's a reason F1 races are held in Texas in November now; back then, the track temperature was a ridiculous ''66'' degrees C and was disintegrating in the heat after qualifying - it needed to be patched up with quick drying cement before the race could start, and the race was brought forward by three hours to avoid the worst of the midday sun which resulted in one driver, Jacques Laffite, turning up in his pyjamas. 25 cars started the race, and the heat broke down cars and drivers to the extent that only seven finished. Mansell's Lotus wasn't one of them - he clipped a wall towards the end and his gearbox subsequently gave out on the final straight, while running fifth. But it absolutely wasn't for the want of trying; as the broken car coasted to a halt he ''got out and started pushing''. He made it to about 400 feet from the finish line before his body finally gave out and he collapsed in the heat. He woke up later in a hospital, on a drip, in a bed packed with ice. There's a reason that when he joined Ferrari, the Italian fans called him ''il Leone'' - The Lion.

* The heroic realism proposed by the German conservative revolutionary movement. This basically states that the current political climate is so bad and unchangeable, that the only thing people can do to survive is having ridiculous amounts of determinator tendencies. One allegory used to explain this was a Roman soldier wanting to fight the lava masses of a volcanic outbreak. That soldier knows that every fight against the lava just leads to a possibly painful death, but he still does it although it's hopeless. The only way to fight hopelessness is to give everything in spite of any action being pointless.

--> '''Tone''' (after the British government has sentenced him to [[PublicExecution death by hanging]]): From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish nation, and felt convinced, that while it lasted, this country would never be free or happy. In consequence, [[TheFettered I determined to apply all the powers which my individual efforts could move]], in order to separate the two countries. That Ireland was not able, of herself, to throw off the yoke, I knew. I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found… Under the flag of the [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution French Republic]], I originally engaged with a view to save and liberate my own country. For that purpose I have encountered the chances of war amongst strangers; for that purpose, I have repeatedly braved the terrors of the ocean, covered as I knew it to be with [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen the triumphant fleets of that Power]] which it was my glory and my duty to oppose. I have sacrificed all my views in life; I have courted poverty; I have left a beloved wife unprotected, and children which I adored, fatherless. After such sacrifices, in a cause which I have always considered as the cause of [[ForGreatJustice justice]] and freedom - it is no great effort at this day to add [[GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeDeath the sacrifice of my life]].

* On a lighter note, one aspiring presidential candidate in the Philippines named Pascual Racuyal was so insistent in running for public office that he campaigned eleven times (1935, 1941, 1946, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1969, 1981 and 1986) with the promise that he will build roads made with plastic to prevent deterioration and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} govern the country via satellite]]. Undeterred by his (obviously) futile presidential campaign in 1935, with just 158 votes, he has since tried to run office in the years that followed, though out of all the elections he was involved in, the 1969 polls was the only other election he qualified, scoring third place against Ferdinand Marcos and Sergio Osmeña, Jr. with 778 votes. Suffice it to say, he was unable to fulfill his dream of sitting in the Malacañang Palace, and the Commission of Elections barred him from campaigning for good in 1986.

* Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, the product of an unhappy home in Austria, has done a little bit of everything: bodybuilder, businessman, movie star, politician, etc. Say what you want about him, but there's no denying that his formidable will power practically makes him a force of nature unto himself.
* Creator/WaltDisney was one of the most ambitious men in screen entertainment, going through the failures of two studios, losing [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit his first successful star character]], finally getting some success from 1928 to the early 40s, which despite making his most ambitious works yet, he wound up going through major financial problems and loss of staff due to the war effort, which was not helped by the disastrous 1941 studio strike which robbed Walt of many valuable animators. It wasn't until 1950 when he finally got back up to his former stride with ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', and even then he had to contend with the flop of ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', which was such a costly failure that Walt had to lay off his entire inking department and switch to xeroxing, as well as produce black & white films (during the early '60s, no less!) just to stay in business.
* Jonas Salk. He was determined to invent the vaccine for poliomyelitis - so determined that [[ProfessorGuineaPig he first tested the vaccine on]] ''[[ProfessorGuineaPig himself]]'' and then his ''[[GuineaPigFamily own family]]''. It was a success, and brought him the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

* Guitarist Jason Becker. Regarded by many as one of the best players to play the instrument, in 1989, after recording two albums in the band Cacophony and building a cult following, playing on friend and bandmate [[Music/{{Megadeth}} Marty Friedman's]] first solo album, releasing his own solo album, and gaining arguably the biggest, highest-paying guitar spot at the time as Music/SteveVai's replacement in Music/DavidLeeRoth's solo band - worth mentioning he did all of this before his twenty-first birthday - a visit to a doctor for an odd limp in his left leg ended with him being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, which wouldn't just kill him in three to five years, it'd also cripple his muscular ability, robbing his music as it killed him. So what did he do? He started using lighter, easier instruments, finished the 1991 Roth record (Though he couldn't join the tour), jumped right by that "three to five years" mark with a grin on, releasing two more albums in the 1990's, an enormous feat with his condition, stabilized in 1997, and nearly twenty years after he was told he'd lose his ability to make music, then die, communicating and still writing through a computer even now that he's fully-paralyzed, save for his eyes, in 2008, he released a new album, with the music he wrote played by nearly thirty friends from his early career and fans who'd grown up since his debut in 1980, including his boss at the time he was diagnosed, and an immensely busy man in the midst of a gigantic reunion tour, David Lee Roth. Screw you, ALS.
* Kathryn Stockett, author of ''The Help''. The woman received 60 rejections. And that's from agents. Usually with good books it's ''after'' you get the agent that the rejection letters start piling in from uninterested publishers who are more driven by the bottom line and potential sales than quality writing, but the fact that Stockett kept believing in her story after being repeatedly told it wasn't up to snuff qualifies her.
* Creator/JKRowling. She worked on the first Harry Potter book for five years, writing as she dealt with her mother's untimely death, a failed marriage, hand-to-mouth poverty and being a single mother. Then she went from living off benefits to multi-millionaire status in five years.

* Creator/ChadwickBoseman. He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016. He continued to take on roles (7 major roles, 10 films, and one Marvel animated show total), including the physically taxing performance as T'Challa in Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar and Film/BlackPanther2018 for four more years, right up until his death in 2020, with no one the wiser about his condition save for his wife until the very end.

* Darrell Hammond of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''. The man's backstory practically defines "Woobiedom": Horribly abusive parents, struggles with alcohol and cocaine, and starting stand-up at a comparatively late age (twenty-six) all worked against him. This is not even taking into account his severe mental health problems which have included bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and a long history of self-harm. He struggled for thirteen years to achieve his dream of going on ''Saturday Night Live'' before finally achieving it at an age when most would have given up. He stayed on the show for fourteen years, longer than any other cast member. If that is not determination, I don't know what is.

* Colonel Sanders may just be the definition of this trope. He endured years of poverty and hardship and switched from job to job until he came across his chicken recipe and tried to turn it into a business. His early efforts failed due to outside circumstances. The poor guy had so much bad luck he must have thought he was cursed. He tried selling his recipe to over three-thousand restaurants but none wanted it. This continued until he was in his late sixties and he eventually started the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchise chain. He quickly became a success and sold it, becoming a millionaire at the age of seventy-four and spending the rest of his life successful and prosperous as well as founding one of the biggest fast food chains in the world.
* All of Music/{{EXO}} count, especially former member [[Creator/KrisWu Kris]]. He'd often practice basketball until 4:00 am alone, long after everyone else had gone home while he was living in Canada. Despite being born in Canada and very close to his mother, he spent five years training in Korea under S.M. Entertainment alone at 16, which is grueling enough, with little to no prior knowledge of the language, and having to deal with racism and bullying from other trainees, along with intense homesickness on top of that. Eventually, he was chosen as EXO-M's leader because of his strong will and responsible nature and can speak 4 languages fluently. As of May 2014, he'd filed a lawsuit against a very influential, and entertainment company, SM, despite allegedly being deathly ill from overwork. He'd quickly moved onto filming in China, among various charity events, and is practically TheAce of Chinese actors at only 24. And he seems to be accomplishing far more with less than a year on his own than he did seven years under SM, underscoring his incredible work ethic and passion for his career. Many C-netizens and people in the acting industry who are supportive of his career in China talk about how he's unusually strong-willed and hardworking for his age.
--> [[IronWoobie I think that if I didn’t go through that pain, there wouldn’t be the me you see today]]. [[MiseryBuildsCharacter If I suffered one less day, I wouldn’t be like this now]].
* Music/EltonJohn was raised by a [[WellDoneSonGuy strict father]] and supportive mother who divorced when Elton was a child, he attended the Royal Academy of Music (even though much of his skills were natural, his fingers were too short to play classical music properly and he had a hard time reading sheet music), and went into rock and roll and wore colorful clothing partly to rebel against his father, who hated rock music and wanted Elton to wear conservative clothing and get a respectable job. Deciding that he wanted to get involved in music in some way or other, Elton played in blues groups, backed British R&B singer Long John Baldry for a while, and he worked mainly as a session musician and pub entertainer; he also auditioned as a vocalist for GentleGiant and Music/KingCrimson. He also worked as a tea boy at a recording studio. On top of that, while still unsure of his sexuality, he was engaged to a pickle farming heiress who he believed he impregnated, who gave Elton the ultimatum to give up his music to raise the child (it turned out to be untrue, and Baldry talked Elton out of the relationship). The engagement nearly [[DrivenToSuicide drove Elton to gas himself to death]], but luckily Elton accidentally left the window open. Elton answered an ad in 1967 placed in Melody Maker magazine by Creator/LibertyRecords looking for songwriters and lyricists, met Bernie Taupin (the main lyricist in his career) and started a songwriting partnership. And it was only after many years with few established stars wanting to cover Bernie and Elton's material that Elton would decide to work as a solo recording artist and cover their songs himself. After a few years honing their craft and building a following, Elton would become one of the biggest solo superstars in TheSeventies and beyond.

* Norwegian author Ingeborg Refling Hagen, who decided to fight UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} after a visit to Italy in 1925. She became one of the early whistle-blowers against the Nazi regime in the thirties, and come the occupation of Norway, she was on the Nazi death list the day ''after'' invasion. She joined the resistance early on and was in charge of an illegal newspaper until her arrest in 1942. The Germans really wanted her dead, sent to Germany or both. To avoid being executed, or deported, and also dying, she faked insanity, and had herself infected with severe diseases, to make herself so insane and nearly dead that the Germans would give up on her, which they eventually did, and she was freed in 1944, only to fake insanity for everyone who didn`t know her closely for the rest of the war. She reasoned, quite correctly, that the German army [[HonorBeforeReason only shot people who could stand on their feet]]. It was also paramount to keep herself alive because that would protect other resistance men from being caught. Consider that this woman put the fricking ''Gestapo'' to shame on sheer willpower. After the war, she relentlessly kept her resistance going, and pursued her goals for a better society through enlightenment and cultural activism up to her ninetieth year.

* The ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' production crew went through hell and back to make their show the success it was. During the original ''Backyard Gang'' videos, David Voss (the original suit actor of Barney) left to enlist in the military and they had to find a replacement. When the [[CrosscastRole actress]] hired as a replacement wasn't able to handle the kids, David Joyner, who had been passed over in auditions, was hired to perform Barney. Then, Connecticut Public Television asked The Lyons Group about doing a ''Barney'' TV series after a higher-up rented one of the tapes for his child and said child enjoyed it, but other executives initially were weary of the series when they couldn't see the series' appeal after watching another ''Barney'' video, but after they showed the video to kids and saw their reactions, [=CPTV=] immediately got a TV contract for the ''Barney'' series. And then anti-Barney humor rolled in, but The Lyons Group never gave up, even if they had to resort to filing [[FrivolousLawsuit cease & desist orders or lawsuits]] to get bored humorists starting anti-Barney webpages to stay quiet. And then ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' come along and forced ''Barney & Friends'' to add copious amounts of FakeInteractivity, but that didn't stop ''Barney'', and neither did the box office failure of ''Film/BarneysGreatAdventure''. By the time the show ended in the early 2010s, it had faced a lot of challenges but managed to overcome many of them.

* Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Joined the British Army, got into the SAS, got kicked out of the SAS for 'improper use of explosives', was awarded a medal for bravery by the Sultan of Oman, and went on to become, in the words of the ''Guinness book of Records'', the 'greatest living explorer'. This is a man who cut off the ends of his frostbitten fingers in his garden shed with a power tool because he was fed up with them hurting, ran 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 continents when he was 59 and didn't know how that affected the heart condition he had at the time because he forgot to pack the monitor, climbed the Eiger in his 60s despite a fear of heights, and ''climbed Mount Everest at 65''. Clearly doesn't know how to give up.

* Creator/ChrisRyan, the SAS member that during the First Gulf War walked over 200 miles in the Iraqi desert over 8 days with no supplies, evaded detection and capture, survived the weather and even drinking water contaminated with nuclear waste in what is by far "the longest escape and evasion" by any soldier to date.
* Sir Douglas Mawson. An Australian scientist who led a fateless expedition in the south pole. His entire team starved to death after a blizzard forced them to stay in their tents, waiting to die. Mawson, on the other hand, walked the 100 miles solo, back to base camp in horrid Antartic conditions of 90 miles per hour winds and freezing temperatures.

* Sir Ernest Shackleton and the other members of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. They planned to cross the Antarctic continent when on the way there their ship got stuck in early ice, was crushed and eventually sank. They survived more than a year on the floating ice cut off from the resupply posts established for them inland. But they weren't rescued then -- that was just when the ice melted and started to break apart. So they got into their lifeboats and paddled past drifting icebergs to the nearest island that was 100 miles away. After almost 500 days they were finally on solid land again but so far off any shipping lines that they would never be found. So after this whole ordeal and despite having only some rudimentary tools left they retrofitted one of their lifeboats for an open sea journey. Six men split off and sailed 800 miles across one of the most dangerous seas through a hurricane, having only three opportunities to determine their position. When they finally got to South Georgia they had to land on the uninhabited side of the island. So after a year on the ice and almost a month on the boat they got up and crossed the unexplored island with little more than a couple hundred meters of rope in a 36 hour non-stop trek.

* Dr. David Livingstone made a habit of wandering Africa for years at a time. The explorer faced incredible dangers, including disease, deadly animals, starvation, weather, cannibal tribes, bandits, and other horrors. This was bad enough, but at least he had his Africa companions Chuma and Susi. When Livingstone died in Africa, Chuma and Susi did not abandon him. Instead, they carried his corpse for one thousand miles over the same deadly and inhospitable terrain.

* Spartacus. MadeASlave, trained as a [[GladiatorGames gladiator]], led a successful revolt in the heart of a slave-holding Empire, built a 70,000 man army and destroyed two of Rome's legions. When the situation had become hopeless, he preferred to die in a final battle against eight legions, rather than trying to flee.

* Any Finn who has won the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerheim_Cross Mannerheim Cross]]. The reasons of the award could be destroying four enemy tanks with a captured anti-tank gun, aiming through barrel as the gunsights had been destroyed (Vilho Rättö), climbing in mid-air ''outside the plane'' from observer's seat to the pilot's seat as pilot had been killed by flak hit and thus saving the airplane (Paavo Kahla) to successfully orchestrating the largest amphibious operation ever in Finnish history, capturing the town of Tornio intact (Wolf Halsti).

*** Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and his troops. Three-dozen men, Yakov, and a one five-story partially-bombed-out apartment building versus everything the entire German Army could throw at them; supposedly, the German bodies piled up so high outside that they could be used ''as cover.'' And, at the end of t and prevailing. Infinity Ward made the battle into a level and let Pavlov get an appearance on the very first ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' game. Allegedly, Germans lost more people then in battle for Paris, and the bodies piled up on each other so high that both sides could (and several times did) use them for ''cover.''

* Rome in the [[UsefulNotes/PunicWars Second Punic War]]. Every time Hannibal wiped out a Roman army the Romans just formed a new one from scratch and were in the field next year. This was the reason that the Romans won the war in the end -- even though defeat had seemed unavoidable only a few years earlier. Even better, the army that in the end defeated Hannibal and won the war was what remained of the one Hannibal had previously defeated at [[CurbstompBattle Cannae]], that, after being forbidden to return in Italy until Hannibal was there as punishment, first crushed the Sicilian city-states that had joined Hannibal (actually only three, but when the unconquerable Syracuse fell the other cities surrendered for fear of what those Romans, who had become murderous even for Roman standards, would do if they had to conquer them), then overran Hannibal's base in Spain (also getting the remains of the Roman army previously assigned to the task to join them),then decided to attack Carthage to draw him out of Italy, and handed him his only defeat ever.

*** At the start Spartacus too seemed invincible. Then entered Crassus, who, as soon as he took command, restored discipline with such methods as [[DrillSergeantNasty having a tenth of the soldiers of a legion that had ran beaten to death by their companions]], pushed them in an isthmus, walled it, and then waited their desperation attack. [[CurbStompBattle Thirty-six thousand rebels were slaughtered in battle]], with six thousand prisoners later [[MakeAnExampleOfThem crucified as example to other aspiring rebels]] and the five thousands who had escaped getting wiped out by Pompeus (who had been recalled from Spain as reinforcements when it seemed that Crassus needed them, and had finally shown up).

* As described in the documentary, ''The Fog of War'', Robert [=MacNamara=] said he only learned how determined the North Vietnamese were to win during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar when he met a major Vietnamese leader of that war. In their conversation, he mentioned how the US won most the battles, but the Vietnamese leader noted that they were prepared to accept many, many more losses in that war as a price for victory. Illustrated by this famous quote of Ho Chi Minh: "You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end, it will be you who tire of it."

** Oddly enough, Onoda is accidentally the second longest serving Japanese soldier after Teruo Nakamura who went through extremely similar circumstances but was discovered only several months later. (He served the Japanese army as Taiwan was under Japanese rule at the time.)

* UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi: Through the 42 years he was in power, he was able to survive everything the Americans threw at him, and even to the end he fought on and refused to surrender to neither the NTC or to NATO. His loyalists in Sirte likewise. Even though they were cornered to a tiny part of the city, they still refused to give up until the very end.

* Members of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, especially those came from countries taken over by fascists. They had spent the 20s fighting the fascists in their home countries only to lose brutally, their homes torched and their friends killed. Their response: to sneak into a country usually across the Pyrenees, which are the most dangerous mountains in the world, while dodging French soldiers whose job it was to prevent people entering Spain. After the Spanish Republic lost to the right-wing rebels, these Brigade members either went to Russia and fought in the Red Army, or ended up as members of the French Resistance, to continue fighting the ideology that had taken so much from them and the rest of the world.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Brothers Forest Brothers]] (Estonian: Metsavennad). They were patriotic, anti-Soviet guerrillas and partisans who fought against the Soviet occupation after WWII when USSR had conquered the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) in 1945. They made the life difficult for the Communists, and while their fight more or less dried up after the death of Stalin 1953, they were never really crushed until 1979, when the last Estonian Forest Brother was killed in action. The last known Forest Brother was Latvian Jānis Pīnups, who came out of hiding only after the collapse of USSR in 1995, having fought guerrilla war against the Communists for ''fifty'' years.

* The military, government and entire population of the Republic of China adopted this attitude during the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. Despite the might of the Japanese army, despite being cut off from foreign aid for years, despite losing huge amounts of land, China and its armies defended itself furiously for eight years, refusing to surrender no matter what. Repeated atrocities inflicted by the Japanese only made Chinese troops ''more'' determined to fight harder and never flee.

* When elements of the 77th Infantry Division (the famous ''Lost Battalion'') found itself [[TrappedBehindEnemyLines trapped and encircled behind enemy lines]] during the 1918 Meuse–Argonne offensive, they had to find a way to contact HQ and inform them about their desperate situation. After two carrier pigeons were shot down by the German forces, the soldiers tried their luck one last time with a hen by the name of ''Cher Ami'' ("Dear Friend"). This pigeon was also immediately targeted but despite being hit no less than four times (Including one which almost completely ripped her leg off, one which hit her square in the chest and another which partly blinded her) she made her way back to her loft at HQ and saved the lives of 194 people. Too this day she is the only [[UsefulNotes/MilitaryAnimals military animal]] who has received the Croix de Guerre and despite her injures she managed to live another six months before passing away.

* Contrary to the popular "humans are the {{Squishy Wizard}}s of the Animal Kingdom" concept, our prehistoric ancestors didn't just use intelligence and tactical teamwork to kill much stronger and faster beasts. They also used what is called ''persistence hunting'' wherein through superior stamina, they wounded and chased creatures to their exhaustion. Domestication of the dog and horse took things UpToEleven. Modern humans have lost this thanks to agriculture, technology and dietary changes, though persistence hunting can still be observed in isolated African hunter-gatherer bushman tribes that didn't have those.
* Swans are the Determinators of the Waterfowl. Their sheer devotion to looking after their brood means that they are very successful in colonising new areas of territory, and their ability to fight off predators larger than them is definitely worth admiring. In comparison, Ducks are rather stupid, and in the wild rarely make it through the breeding season with more than two of their brood still alive. Swans will actively put themselves in harm's way (even getting themselves killed) to protect their cygnets, and the Mute Swan (C. olor) is said to be able to break a grown man's arm with just the beating of its wings. In the United Kingdom, people often complain about their dogs being attacked by swans, when it is, in fact, the fault of the people allowing their aggressive dogs to threaten or harass the swans. One particular swan survived being shot with a crossbow at point blank range and evaded rescue by a team of vets for over a week before being saved.

* Salmon. These fish are born in high mountain streams, at times hundreds of miles inland, past rocks and rapids atop the bodies of their dead parents. They travel downstream as they grow in size, some but not many (relatively speaking) dodging gauntlets of predators on their journey to the sea. The survivors, most fit whether by disease resistance, speed, strength, or luck, are the only ones to reach the ocean, where they are further culled by merciless and uncaring Mother Nature. It is here that they continue their growth and development for a few years, honing their skills and growing in strength for what lies ahead. At some point, they are called to the place where it all began, to spawn and join their ancestors in the hallowed halls of salmon Valhalla. They change shape, growing beaks, canine teeth, don warpaint and overall looking like they have taken a level in badass, and considering these are the few survivors of the previous brood, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they have. So they return, the only way they can, the hard way, swimming and leaping up the rapids and short waterfalls the entire route. Overwhelming their predators, man, bears and manbearpigs with sheer numbers and rock-solid determination, and belly-filling deliciousness, eventually enough of them make it back and engage in a final act of giving the rest of "nature" the bird via an orgy of death and babymaking before they shed their mortal shells and ascend into the heavens.

** Boar spears, the weapon of choice for killing such animals prior to the invention of firearms, are long, sturdy, and have an equally sturdy cross-guard a short distance behind the point. This is because boars tends to be willing and able to charge up the spear after being stabbed, impaling themselves further in the process, [[TakingYouWithMe in order to get at the human on the other end.]]

* Kimura himself was a pretty tough customer. Upon his second visit to Brazil, he was bullied into fighting aforementioned Santana, who was younger and in top condition, whereas Kimura suffered from an injury at the time. The two beat the shit out of each other for forty minutes with the fight ending in a draw:

* Not to be outdone (in what is now considered a classic rivalry), a few months later another Gracie, Renzo, faced off with Sakuraba and refused to submit to an armlock to the point where his elbow was broken - ''and beyond'', until the referee had to stop the match because of the injury. Renzo paid tribute to his opponent after the fight.

* For boxing, the TropeCodifier here is probably Joe Frazier, who simply did not know how to fight going anyway but forward, no matter who he was fighting or how. His heart was absolutely second to none and this is probably best exemplified in his most overwhelming loss against George Foreman. Facing a man who was the worst possible matchup for him (bigger, taller, stronger, harder punching, and with an iron chin), Frazier refused to back down despite getting pummeled from post to post and suffering 6 knockdowns in 2 rounds (the first of which was the famous "Down goes Frazier!!" call). Each time, Frazier got up and kept going back for more, noticeably looking angrier than anything when his corner waved off the fight. Even after his epic third fight with [[UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli Ali]], an old, worn down Frazier wanted nothing more than a chance to redeem himself against Foreman, a fight no one thought he could win. Frazier lost in 5 rounds, but he went out in trademark fashion, going forward no matter what the cost and swinging the entire time. It should be noted in the third Ali fight that he was effectively blind at the end of the fight having his good eye shut and his other eye permanently damaged from a sparring accident. And he didn't want to end the fight; instead, his corner called it. Until his death in 2011, he was still angry about that, thinking he could have won the fight.

* An old example of boxing in the Usefulnotes/OlympicGames was Mauro Cía of Argentina. In the 1948 Olympics, he had a campaign of increasing injury, as after the lost semifinal the coaching staff did not want to clear him for the third-place match,[[note]]something abolished in the following Games; ever since, both losing semifinalists get bronze medals[[/note]] as Cía had two swollen black eyes, cuts in the cheeks and eyebrows, and a right hand so swollen the boxing glove did not fit. Yet he went for the bronze medal match and won, as the opponent who was leading up to that point fell trying to dodge, broke his ankle and couldn't get up to the count of ten.

* At the 2011 Gymnastics European Championships, Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina, the reigning all-around world champion, had a bad vault landing and tore her ACL, which is frequently a career-ending injury. But not only was it not career-ending for Mustafina, she was able to rehab and get back to competition shape in time to compete all four events ''in the Olympics'' just 15 months later, made it into three individual finals (all-around, uneven bars, and floor) as well as the team final, and ended up winning medals in every single one, giving her the highest medal count for any athlete in women's gymnastics at those Games, including a gold on the uneven bars. Then she came back and repeated three of those medals at the 2016 Olympics.

* The 2010 Green Bay Packers. Throughout the course of the 16-game season (as well as 4 games in the playoffs), the Packers had to put at least 14 people on injured reserve, meaning they couldn't play again for the rest of the season. Therefore, the team had to find new ways to deal with the missing players every week. They ended up clinching the #6 seed in the NFC in the final week, then proceeded to claim road playoff victories over the #3 seed Philadelphia Eagles, the #1 seed Atlanta Falcons, and the #2 seed Chicago Bears (their division rivals), making it all the way to Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. There, Green Bay head coach [=Mike McCarthy=] was given the challenge of having the Packers face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers, his native hometown team. Even after losing wide receiver Donald Driver & cornerback Charles Woodson to injuries in the 2nd quarter, the Packers still managed to not give up and won 31-25.

* The Sydney Swans in UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball have become known for this trope over the decade to 2012. Ferocious defence, mental and physical toughness and a much-discussed "Bloods culture" of simply never giving in have led them to win grand finals over much more talented teams, through sheer will and constant pressure.

* Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdić. During the warm-up before sprint in Winter Olympics in Vancouver, she fell into 3 meters deep gully and landed on the rocks, breaking four ribs in the process. She still qualified into the main event, won her quarterfinal, managed to reach the finals despite ''having her lung pierced'' by a shard of bone, and ultimately won the bronze medal.

* Any skydiver. Not only the training curriculum is intensive, but the sport itself includes overcoming the primordial fear - fear of jumping into empty air and defying certain and very nasty death. To steer your canopy and land safely on your feet is a skill on itself. Many experienced skydivers are likely to have experienced fractured bones, dislocated joints and sprained ankles, but they still keep on going.

* Davey Allison's 1992 NASCAR season counts. From the spring race at Bristol onwards, he was almost always dealing with an injury of some sort, including concussions, broken collarbones, etc. and almost won the title, if he had not got caught in two accidents in the season finale at Atlanta.
* Dale Earnhardt Sr. after his 1996 wreck at Talladega that left him with a broken collarbone, sternum and shoulder blade. He won the pole at Watkins Glen the next weekend, and had victory in sight till fatigue kicked in. He dealt with repercussions after this wreck clear up until 2000, when he had surgery to correct a lingering injury.
* Bruce Arians has had one of the strangest career trajectories of any UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball coach, with several situations that may well have ended his career had he not just shrugged them off and kept going. One of the last assistant coaches ever hired by [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball legendary Alabama Crimson Tide]] coach Bear Bryant, Arians was hired as the head coach at [[UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} Temple University]] at the age of 30 in 1983. He managed to bring some respectability to Temple's historically dreary program, with star running back Paul Palmer finishing second in the voting for the 1986 Heisman Trophy. But everything crashed after that. Arians was turned down for the head coaching job at his alma mater Virginia Tech, then it was discovered that Palmer had signed with an agent, violating NCAA rules, so Temple had to vacate all of its wins that year. Temple fired Arians in 1988. Afterwards he spent the next decade alternating between assistant jobs in the pro and college ranks. A play-calling gamble that backfired disastrously got him fired after one season as Alabama's offensive coordinator in 1997.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Alabama, leading archrival Auburn 17-15 with :42 left in the fourth quarter, faced a 3rd-and-8 on their own 36-yard line. Getting a first down would basically end the game. Since a running play would likely come up short of the first down, Arians called a screen pass, and it was completed. However, the receiver ran into an Auburn defender, the ball popped loose, Auburn recovered and kicked a field goal to take an 18-17 lead. Alabama still had a final field goal attempt that fell short. Head coach Mike [=DuBose=] completely threw Arians under the bus, claiming that he had no knowledge of or involvement with Arians' play call. Some observers now feel that it was actually a good call, just that the worst-case scenario happened. And of course, it wasn't Arians' fault that the Bama defense blew an 11-point lead in the 4th quarter[[/labelnote]] Gaining a reputation as a quarterback guru, Arians had successful NFL offensive coordinator stints in the 2000s, but also drew ire for his tendency to gamble in his playcalling. A successful interim head coaching stint with the Indianapolis Colts in 2011 led to getting the head job with the Arizona Cardinals, but with ongoing health concerns he retired in 2017, followed by signing on with Creator/{{CBS}} as an analyst. It proved to be a TenMinuteRetirement, as he accepted the head coaching job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019. The next season, 68-year-old Arians became the oldest coach to ever win a Super Bowl, with the unlikely ingredients of a 42-year-old quarterback (New England Patriots legend Creator/TomBrady, who signed with Tampa Bay before the season) and three straight road games in the playoffs, though the Bucs ended up as the first team to play a Super Bowl on its home field.

* Azusa Hayano, a Japanese geologist working in the Aokigahara Forest, better known as "suicide forest" due to the enormous rates of suicides that happen in these unnaturally dense woods. Despite having personally discovered over a hundred corpses in his 30 years of work there, he never stopped doing his job and trying to dissuade people he met there of taking their own life.

* The [[GreasySpoon Waffle House]] restaurant chain in America are famous for being open day or night, rain or shine. As long as the building has the resources to keep selling food (even if with a limited menu) and isn't in ''immediate'' danger of being destroyed, they're open to serve hungry customers. FEMA even has an informal metric scale known as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index Waffle House Index]]" which they can use to judge just how much disaster assistance will be needed by observing how the local Waffle Houses are preparing. Travelers in America beware, if you see a Waffle House boarding up its doors, its time to ''[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere leave]].''

* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, who survived any number of setbacks and humiliations and yet prevailed. Because of this, he is also the [[TropeNamers Trope Namer]] for [[LastStand defiant determination on a large scale]] on this wiki.

* Creator/WaltDisney was one of the most ambitious men in screen entertainment, going through the failures of two studios, losing [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit his first successful star character]], finally getting some success from 1928 to the early 40s, which despite making his most ambitious works yet, he wound up going through major financial problems and loss of staff due to the war effort, which was not helped by the disastrous 1941 studio strike which robbed Walt of many valuable animators. It wasn't until 1950 when he finally got back up to his former stride with ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', and even then he had to contend with the flop of ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', which was such a costly failure that Walt had to lay off his entire inking department and switch to xeroxing, as well as produce black & white films (during the early 60s, no less!) just to stay in business.

** Salmon can be truly Determinators. One salmon in Norway swam not only a couple of hundred kilometers upstream but also over a waterfall, into a ditch hardly knee deep, then into a culvert hardly 15 cm in diameter, then over a board wall - into the same salmon breeding pool where it was born years before.

* One SignatureScene of the Usefulnotes/OlympicGames, which have an endless supplies of athletes that never gave up, is the 1984 women's marathon, where Swiss runner [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBasZWjd92k Gabriela Andersen-Schiess]] approached the finishing line visibly broken down and barely standing after running 42 kilometers under the scorching Californian sun, and waved away medical personnel who rushed to help her until she crossed the finish line.

* No other player in NFL history defines this trope quite like now-retired Washington quarterback Alex Smith. While Smith already embodied this to some extent given his determination to keep playing despite being [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter supplanted by young star quarterbacks]] on two previous teams, what truly cemented his legacy as a determinator was the aftermath of a severe leg fracture he sustained during a 2018 game. The injury in and of itself could have been career ending (a [[HistoryRepeats nearly identical injury]] ended the career of another Washington quarterback, Joe Theismann, 33 years earlier), but Smith's ordeal was just beginning; two days after the injury, he was fighting for his life as a deadly infection ravaged his body, while doctors debated whether they might have to [[LifeOrLimbDecision amputate the leg]] to prevent the infection from spreading. Smith was ultimately spared from losing his leg, but endured over a dozen surgeries to remove infected tissue and repair the consequent damage -- and yet still returned to the NFL for one last season. His return was so incredible that not only was he a virtual lock for the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award the moment he stepped onto the field, but a not-insignificant number of fans suggested that the award be given Smith's name (in the same way that the NFL Man of the Year award took on Walter Payton's name in 1999).

* Johnny Hoogerland. During the 9th stage of the 2011 UsefulNotes/TourDeFrance, he was in a 5-man breakaway five minutes ahead of the main field. Due to his performance in said breakaway, he had regained the King of the Mountains jersey that he had lost the day before and it waited for him at the end of the stage. However, another rider in the breakaway (Juan Antonio Flecha) was sideswiped by a TV car. Fletcha slammed into Hoogerland, sending him flying... into a barbed-wire fence. At 30 miles per hour. The fence destroyed his shorts and left him with multiple deep lacerations on his thighs. What did this man do? He got bandaged up by medical, found a new pair of shorts, got back on his bike, and finished the stage. He finished nearly fifteen minutes behind the main field and was in visibly excruciating pain as he stood on the podium to accept his [=KotM=] jersey. After the ceremony, he finally went to the hospital and ended up requiring ''33 stitches'' to close the gashes on his legs. Two days later, he gets back on his bike and manages to complete the race.

** Until Tokyo 2020, UsefulNotes/SanMarino were also on this list. That was until Alessandra Perilli won their first ever Olympic medal - a bronze for trap shooting.

* Bruce Arians has had one of the strangest career trajectories of any UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball coach, with several situations that may well have ended his career had he not just shrugged them off and kept going. One of the last assistant coaches ever hired by [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball legendary Alabama Crimson Tide]] coach Bear Bryant, Arians was hired as the head coach at [[UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} Temple University]] at the age of 30 in 1983. He managed to bring some respectability to Temple's historically dreary program, with star running back Paul Palmer finishing second in the voting for the 1986 Heisman Trophy. But everything crashed after that. Arians was turned down for the head coaching job at his alma mater Virginia Tech, then it was discovered that Palmer had signed with an agent, violating NCAA rules, so Temple had to vacate all of its wins that year. Temple fired Arians in 1988. Afterwards he spent the next decade alternating between assistant jobs in the pro and college ranks. A play-calling gamble that backfired disastrously got him fired after one season as Alabama's offensive coordinator in 1997.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Alabama, leading archrival Auburn 17-15 with :42 left in the fourth quarter, faced a 3rd-and-8 on their own 36-yard line. Getting a first down would basically end the game. Since a running play would likely come up short of the first down, Arians called a screen pass, and it was completed. However, the receiver ran into an Auburn defender, the ball popped loose, Auburn recovered and kicked a field goal to take an 18-17 lead. Alabama still had a final field goal attempt that fell short. Head coach Mike [=DuBose=] completely threw Arians under the bus, claiming that he had no knowledge of or involvement with Arians' play call. Some observers now feel that it was actually a good call, just that the worst-case scenario happened. And of course, it wasn't Arians' fault that the Bama defense blew an 11-point lead in the 4th quarter[[/labelnote]] Gaining a reputation as a quarterback guru, Arians had succesful NFL offensive coordinator stints in the 2000s, but also drew ire for his tendency to gamble in his playcalling. A successful interim head coaching stint with the Indianapolis Colts in 2011 led to getting the head job with the Arizona Cardinals, but with ongoing health concerns he retired in 2017, followed by signing on with Creator/{{CBS}} as an analyst. It proved to be a TenMinuteRetirement, as he accepted the head coaching job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019. The next season, 68-year-old Arians became the oldest coach to ever win a Super Bowl, with the unlikely ingredients of a 42-year-old quarterback (New England Patriots legend Creator/TomBrady, who signed with Tampa Bay before the season) and three straight road games in the playoffs, though the Bucs ended up as the first team to play a Super Bowl on its home field.

* British tennis player Emma Raducanu beat every opponent she faced in the 2021 US Open women's singles without dropping a ''single set through the entire tournament''. And this was an 18 year old who'd recently finished secondary school. Raducanu's victories included the reigning Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and fellow teenager Canadian Leylah Fernandez, who she defeated in the final. Almost unbelievably, Raducanu started ''as a qualifier'' and thus played three more matches than seeded players (10 in total, so 20 straight set wins). Raducanu is the first qualifier ''in tennis history'' - male or female - to win a grand slam, and her 2021 US Open victory was the first major for a British female since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977. Astonishingly, this was only Radacanu's second ever major tournament after Wimbledon 2021, during which she was forced to retire in the fourth round after suffering breathing difficulties. This led to negative comments - notably from ex-player John [=McEnroe=] and TV host Piers Morgan - that Radacanu was a quitter. Well, she certainly answered her critics in style.

* Minoru Saito. This 80-year-old Japanese sailor has [[CrewOfOne single-handedly]] sailed around the world for seven (7) times. His latest voyage, completed in 2011 was made along the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Roaring Forties]] - ''against'' the wind.
* Terry Fox. His attempt at running from one end of the world's second largest country to the other, despite being an amputee and suffering from cancer, inspired millions and raised millions of dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society. At the age of 21.

* A very, very dark example reared its head in the German cities of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst at the turn of the millennium. Craving the respect and admiration of his peers, intensive care nurse [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Hogel Niels Hogel]] concluded that the best way to achieve this was to poison a patient under his care and then revive them in a heroic display of medical skill. Things went south and the patient died. Not about to be dissuaded from his quest by such a minor setback, Högel tried again. And again. And again. And again and again and again until five years later, in 2005, over '''100 patients''' had paid with their life for Högel's determination... and that's just the confirmed cases, with as many as 300 possible victims attributed to this insanity. A final trial in 2019 eventually sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of at least 85 people, and although Högel's hero fantasies never played out the way he wanted, he immortalized himself as the most prolific serial killer in German post-UsefulNotes/WorldWarII history, and the country's worst mass murderer in peacetime.

* ''Creator/MichellePfeiffer'' during the making of ''Film/BatmanReturns''. Apparently, the Catwoman costume was downright painful to wear, so much she couldn't stand it for more than a few minutes at time. Despite this, she managed to complete all her scenes and [[EarnYourHappyEnding was rewarded with 3 million dollars at the end of it all.]]

* The Soviet miner [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Stakhanov Alexey Stakhanov]] was credited with mining 102 tons of coal in 6 hours (14 times his quota), and was used by the government as a symbol of productivity in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite_movement Stakhanovite movement]]. However, many workers resented him for [[ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest raising labor expectations for them]], and most historians nowadays believe the whole thing was [[FakeUltimateHero propaganda by the Communist Party]], and that Stakhanov had helpers who were uncredited.

* Creator/ChadwickBoseman. He was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016. He continued to take on roles (7 major roles, 10 films, and one Marvel animated show total), including the physically taxing performance as T'Challa in Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar andFilm/BlackPanther2018 for four more years, right up until his death in 2020, with no one the wiser about his condition save for his wife until the very end.

* UsefulNotes/{{Andorra}}, UsefulNotes/SanMarino, and UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} appeared in over twenty UsefulNotes/OlympicGames and have yet to win a ''single'' medal. Sure, they have yet to succeed, but the fact that they keep trying deserves admiration.
* Davey Allison's 1992 NASCAR season counts.From the spring race at Bristol onwards, he was almost always dealing with an injury of some sort, including concussions, broken collarbones, etc. and almost won the title, if he had not got caught in two accidents in the season finale at Atlanta.

* British tennis player Emma Raducanu defeated every opponent she faced in the 2021 US Open without dropping a ''single set through the entire tournament'', defeating Canadian Leylah Fernandez in the final to win the women's singles title. Almost unbelievably, Raducanu started ''as a qualifier'' and thus played three more matches than seeded players (10 in total, so 20 straight set wins). Raducanu is the first qualifier ''in tennis history'' - male or female - to win a grand slam, and her 2021 US Open victory was the first major for a British female player since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977. Astonishingly, this was only Radacanu's second ever major tournament after Wimbledon 2021, during which she was forced to retire in the fourth round after suffering breathing difficulties. This led to comments - notably from ex-player John [=McEnroe=] and TV host Piers Morgan - that Radacanu was a quitter. Well, she certainly answered those criticisms in style.

* British tennis player Emma Raducanu defeated every opponent she faced in the 2021 US Open without dropping a ''single set through the entire tournament''. Almost unbelievably, Radacanu began ''as a qualifier'' and thus played three more matches than seeded players (10 in total, so 20 straight set wins). Raducanu became the first qualifying player in tennis history - male or female - to win a grand slam singles title, and her victory was the first major for a British female player since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977. Astonishingly, this was only Radacanu's second ever major tournament after Wimbledon 2021, during which she was forced to retire in the fourth round after suffering breathing difficulties. This led to comments - notably from ex-player John [=McEnroe=] and TV host Piers Morgan - that Radacanu was a quitter. Well, she certainly answered those criticisms in style.

* A later German, Bastian Schweinsteiger, remained on the field despite becoming TheChewToy of the opposing Argentina team: Schweinsteiger was felled 7 times, including a punch to the face that required some stitches.

* Japan's figure skating ace, Creator/YuzuruHanyu, (who, incidentally, idolizes Plushenko) is no slouch either. He was diagnosed with asthma at the age of two, survived the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011 (having to flee his collapsing home rink with his skates on), skated his free program at the 2014 Cup of China visibly disoriented and bandaged around the head after a terrifying collision during warmups, fell five times, and ''nearly won the gold anyway'', and won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2018 while on painkillers for his injured ankle in November 2017. Even after his injury, he is still hellbent on being the first person to land the quadruple axel in competition (a feat not yet accomplished as of June 2021). What he has to show for his Determinator spirit: nineteen broken world records (the most times among singles skaters since the score system changed in 2004), first Asian singles skater to win Olympic gold and the youngest singles skater ever to do so, first singles skater to achieve a Super Slam[[note]]winning all major competitions in his senior and junior career[[/note]], the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition, among ''many'' other honors and accolades (including actual medals). He also very nearly competed against his childhood idol, had Plushenko not withdrawn from Sochi 2014 - the event Hanyu won his first Olympic gold on. He is not considered one of, if not the greatest, singles skater in history for no reason.

* Prehistoric Homo sapiens used what is called ''persistence hunting'' to kill much stronger and faster beasts. Through superior running stamina and intellectual tracking abilities, they wounded and chased creatures to their exhaustion. Domestication of the dog and horse took things UpToEleven.

** Japan's figure skating ace, Creator/YuzuruHanyu, (who, incidentally, idolizes Plushenko) is no slouch either. He was diagnosed with asthma at the age of two, survived the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011 (having to flee his collapsing home rink with his skates on), skated his free program at the 2014 Cup of China after a terrifying collision during warmups, fell five times, and ''nearly won the gold anyway'', and won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal in 2018 while on painkillers for his injured ankle in November 2017. Even after his injury, he is still hellbent on being the first person to land the quadruple axel in competition (a feat not yet accomplished as of March 2020). What he has to show for his Determinator spirit: nineteen broken world records (the most times among singles skaters since the score system changed in 2004), first Asian singles skater to win Olympic gold and the youngest singles skater ever to do so, first singles skater to achieve a Super Slam[[note]]winning all major competitions in his senior and junior career[[/note]], the first skater to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition, among ''many'' other honors and accolades (including actual medals). He also very nearly competed against his childhood idol, had Plushenko not withdrawn from Sochi 2014 - the event Hanyu won his first Olympic gold on. He is not considered one of, if not the greatest, singles skater in history for no reason.

* Jonas Salk. He was determined to invent the vaccine for poliomyelitis - so determined that he first tested the vaccine on ''himself'' and then his ''own family''. It was a success. It brought him the Nobel Prize of Medicine.

* Bruce Arians has had one of the strangest career trajectories of any UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball coach, with several situations that may well have ended his career had he not just shrugged them off and kept going. One of the last assistant coaches ever hired by [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball legendary Alabama Crimson Tide]] coach Bear Bryant, Arians was hired as the head coach at [[UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} Temple University]] at the age of 30 in 1983. He managed to bring some respectability to Temple's historically dreary program, with star running back Paul Palmer finishing second in the voting for the 1986 Heisman Trophy. But everything crashed after that. Arians was turned down for the head coaching job at his alma mater Virginia Tech, then it was discovered that Palmer had signed with an agent, violating NCAA rules, so Temple had to vacate all of its wins that year. Temple fired Arians in 1988. Afterwards he spent the next decade alternating between assistant jobs in the pro and college ranks. A play-calling gamble that backfired disastrously got him fired after one season as Alabama's offensive coordinator in 1997.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Alabama, leading archrival Auburn 17-15 with :42 left in the fourth quarter, faced a 3rd-and-8 on their own 36-yard line. Getting a first down would basically end the game. Since a running play would likely come up short of the first down, Arians called a screen pass, and it was completed. However, the receiver ran into an Auburn defender, the ball popped loose, Auburn recovered and kicked a field goal to take an 18-17 lead. Alabama still had a final field goal attempt that fell short. Head coach Mike [=DuBose=] completely threw Arians under the bus, claiming that he had no knowledge of or involvement with Arians' play call. Some observers now feel that it was actually a good call, just that the worst-case scenario happened. And of course, it wasn't Arians' fault that the Bama defense blew an 11-point lead in the 4th quarter[[/labelnote]] Gaining a reputation as a quarterback guru, Arians had succesful NFL offensive coordinator stints in the 2000s, but also drew ire for his tendency to gamble in his playcalling. A successful interim head coaching stint with the Indianapolis Colts in 2011 led to getting the head job with the Arizona Cardinals, but with ongoing health concerns he retired in 2017, followed by signing on with Creator/{{CBS}} as an analyst. It proved to be a TenMinuteRetirement, as he accepted the head coaching job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019. The next season, 68-year-old Arians became the oldest coach to ever win a Super Bowl, with the unlikely ingredients of a 42-year-old quarterback (New England Patriots legend Creator/TomBrady, who signed with Tampa Bay before the season) and three straight road games in the playoffs, though the Bucs ended up as the first team to play a Super Bowl on its home field (they were actually the designated "away" team because of their seeding).

* No other player in NFL history defines this trope quite like now-retired Washington quarterback Alex Smith. While Smith already embodied this to some extent given his determination to keep playing despite being [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter supplanted by young star quarterbacks]] on two previous teams, what truly cemented his legacy as a determinator was the aftermath of a severe leg fracture he sustained during a 2018 game.
The injury in and of itself could have been career ending (a [[HistoryRepeats nearly identical injury]] ended the career of another Washington quarterback, Joe Theismann, 33 years earlier), but Smith's ordeal was just beginning; two days after the injury, he was fighting for his life as a deadly infection ravaged his body, while doctors debated whether they might have to [[LifeOrLimbDecision amputate the leg]] to prevent the infection from spreading. Smith was ultimately spared from losing his leg, but endured over a dozen surgeries to remove infected tissue and repair the consequent damage -- and yet still returned to the NFL for one last season. His return was so incredible that not only was he a virtual lock for the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award the moment he stepped onto the field, but a not-insignificant number of fans suggested that the award be given Smith's name (in the same way that the NFL Man of the Year award took on Walter Payton's name in 1999).