Olympic success or failure can hinge on the snap of a finger, a tiny wobble or even a gust of wind
Mike Conley spent most of the 1980s ranked among the top triple jumpers in the world. So, heading into the US Olympic trials in ’88, there was very little thought given to the idea he wouldn’t finish in the top three and make the trip to Seoul.
In a sport embedded inside an Olympic world where medals can be won and careers can be made by the most minuscule of fractions — of seconds or centimeters — what toppled Conley’s hopes had nothing to do with a measuring tape.
It was a pair of baggy shorts, the likes of which he had never worn in a track meet before, that did him in. Conley recalls video replays that showed the breeze that was kicked up by the vented flaps on the sides of his shorts created a barely perceptible mark in the sand nearly a foot behind where he landed.
Officials measured Conley’s jump from the mark the shorts made. It cost him precious centimeters and he finished fourth, one spot out of the Olympics.
“Devastating,” he said. “I wasn’t jumping bad. I made all the right physical decisions. But I made some dumb mental mistakes.”
Conley’s story serves as one of hundreds of examples of how the most minute details can change not only the result of a single race or contest, but also can have a huge impact on the lives of athletes whose make-or-break moments — their chance for a chocolate box or a six-figure endorsement — come only once every four years, or sometimes only once in a lifetime.
Over the next 17 days in Paris, fractions — often gained or lost due to the smallest of details that often
