NARROW MARGINS

On not making it: Olympic hopefuls explore the agony of ‘almost’.

WORDS KATHRYN PHELAN|PHOTOGRAPHY VARIOUS

For each Olympic selection that is definitive or even obvious, another is determined by a delicate margin: a decisecond, a half point, an uncharacteristic performance. A buoy. A bad dinner. Part of the beauty of the Olympics is its straightforwardness: it does not bend with empathy, so the best on the day are the best in the world. Athletes on every level can recognize the implications of this pressure, and the inevitable truth that – for better or worse – it may not yield an honest apex every time, because sometimes one shot is not enough.

But one shot is more than most athletes ever get, and the rousing coverage of Olympic triumph and loss sidesteps thousands of hopefuls who missed Rio by fractions. These athletes, despite having made the same sacrifices as their Olympian teammates, are ultimately left anonymous, watching Opening Ceremonies from their sofas and nursing muscles and moods through post-taper atrophy. The dramatic concentration of their energies fades without the spurts of fanfare and support that in many ways vindicate an athletic career. That the world largely ignored these athletes during the sixteen days of the Olympic competition, for which they had spent years training, is only part of what makes their journeys so interesting.

SARAH MCILDUFF

29, fourth in the US pair in London

After Sarah McIlduff, 29, finished fourth in the USA pair by 0.2 seconds in London in 2012, she and pair partner Sara Lombardi (née Hendershot) agreed to give Rio a crack. The decision wasn’t made until late in the game, but McIlduff and Lombardi took training at pace: a climate chase sent them to Sarasota, Florida; Folsom, California; Boston and San Diego, as well as Cambridge, New Zealand. They began their training outside the bounds of the official USA national team camp, a risk they hoped would enable personalisation to their own bodies and needs. ‘We basically wanted to train on the water the whole year [leading to Rio] so we could stay in touch with the boat and each other,’ McIlduff recalls. ‘We only took three days to see our families over Christmas.’