I remember having a conversation many years ago with a new colleague when the discussion turned to running. “I could have gone to the Olympics,” he told me, adding: “but I decided to double down on academics instead.” From what I could gather, he ran a mean 400m in high school. To this day, I still think about that conversation. Getting to the Olympics is not easy. Nor is it impossible. It’s just very, very hard. Arguably, it’s much harder for traditional Olympic sports than the newly added sports. For the 400m sprint it’s not quite, but it’s nearly impossible.…

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