You train hard. Harder than hard. Your training makes headlines you train so hard. Conditioning, exercise, dieting, supplementary vitamins, the occasional juice cleanse. Like, you train hard to get to Rio, to get to the Olympics. Where the top of the top of the crop compete.
And then you get dusted by some guy jogging past you, turning to face you as he dusts you to remind you that there’s nothing you can do about it. Unfortunately, that’s what happened to a handful of Olympians today in one of the 100-meter heats.
It’s only 100 meters, so there’s no staggering. Everybody start even with everybody. Watch Usain Bolt stumble out of the gate even, quickly regain his composure, accelerate to top speed for a fraction of a second, then shift his body into cruise control–also known as jogging–as he crosses the finish line, turning to face both sidelines as he triumphs so sideline photographers on both sides can get pristine shots of his coolly jovial face.
That Usain Bolt is a different animal.