The key here is that it’s a vote for the most popular of the 2 candidates based on the votes of who bothered to vote for them specifically, then further butchered via the EC. It’s a smaller, different pool of people that may elect someone that the actual majority prefer less, because part of the actual majority decided to play a different game entirely.
Ultra marathons are an entirely different sport from the 10k, and even marathons. Obviously training matters, but we also don’t have to pretend all humans are identical and only training and grit separate them.