A Phrase I Don't Understand

I've been noticing a phrase lately in different contexts that I fundamentally don't understand the use of.

"In it to win it..."

Has anyone, ever, for any reason be "in" something for any reason other than to win it? Okay, so I'm sure you can give me a few examples of that happening. But the people using this stupid phrase do so during their participation whatever contest they're in. So the real question is whether anyone has ever admitted during the contest that they're in it for any reason other than to win it? I'm going with no.

So please all of you political candidates (and Hillary is the one I specifically heard say this at one point, though I'm sure others on both sides of the aisle have said it), save your breath. We'll assume that you are running in hopes of winning and won't pull the plug on it until we'll all already written you off and stopped caring anyway. And besides, when you bail later you're kind of going back on your word - and you can bet someone is going to bring that up the next time you run for public office.