AGE: 24 COUNTRY: Sweden EVENT: Men's triple jump THE DRAMA: Last month, Olsson lost for the first time in 30 meetings THE COMPETITION: American Kenta Bell, Brazil's Jadel Gregório and Romanian Marian Oprea "are all dangerous," Olsson says
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004; 11.13BST
Christian Olsson's story is already part of athletics lore: while selling programs at the 1995 world track-and-field championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, he saw Great Britain's Jonathan Edwards hop, step and jump to a world-record 18.29 m and decided the triple jump was the event for him. He was right. Since switching from the high jump, Olsson has blossomed and dominated. In Paris last August, he beat Edwards to win his first world title; it was the Briton's last meet and a changing of the guard. Still just 24, Olsson has lost only once in his last 30 competitions. In Athens, "I'm aiming for the gold medal," he says. "I've set myself up for a really good position at the Olympics."
His task won't be easy. Four men have jumped farther than Olsson this year. But he's consistently longer and knows that previous jumps and competitions won't count in Athens. He also knows that anything can happen at the Games, even to the hottest of favorites. "If I am 100% prepared and I am still beaten," he says, "then I'll think, Well, I've done everything I could."
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