The Australian swimmer Boy Charlton 1907-75 was such an athlete and old film footage of him in the competitive pool illustrated why he did so well, in that he swam with his torso on top of the water such was his lung capacity. He held 35 Australian Championships and had set 15 world records in his career and Olympic Gold medals at three Olympics the first being Paris 1924. His raw natural talent was sublime. (en.wikipedia.org)
Bob "Bullet" Hayes 1942-2002 was another. Olympic Gold medallist 100 metre 1964 Tokyo more so as he was in the first lane in borrowed spikes on the cinder track and then topped it off with the 4 x 100 relay Gold coming from behind. Hayes then went on to an American Football (Gridiron) career and entered into their Hall of Fame posthumously in 2009. His style of running was far from text book. (en.wikipedia.org)
Sir Donald Bradman (1908 – 2001) is also in this camp. His raw cricket talent was unmistakable, even from a school-boy cricketer and it wasn't long before he was on the national and international scene. (en.wikipedia.org)
We could go on and on with celebrity athletic names whose raw talent was such that the sort of hard-yards that is accustomed with elite athleticism is sometimes counter productive.
Jamaican Usain Bolt the current world sprint sensation said of himself at these recent World Athletic Championships held in Daegu, Korea: "I'm not a conventional athlete," he also said. "I do what I like, stay up till whatever time I feel like, socialise when I like and eat what I like. I don't follow any of the rules." (www.smh.com.au)
Everything I've read on Usain Bolt illustrates that he does do some hard yards and trains with the rest of them, but it's minimal compared to what most world class athletes need to engage to retain their peak.
His raw talent lines up with the likes of those listed above and many others. More than likely, Usain Bolt will need some of those hard-yards as he gets older. It is certainly a treat to watch such an athlete perform, and there was no question of his brilliance as the last leg runner in his team mate's world record 4 x 100 metre relay Gold in Daegu.
Raw natural talent of such enormity is obviously very rare, most of us need the hard-yards to compete at elite level. It has been said that when such raw talent is exhibited, any attempt to coach-out unaccustomed techniques becomes counter-productive.
I wonder how many other situations in other endeavours in life where raw talent is so obvious, that this 'counter-productive' aspect also applies.