TOKYO — Three weeks after rupturing his Achilles’ tendon at a track meet in May, Christian Taylor was in a hyperbaric chamber when his phone rang.
Before his injury, Taylor had harbored big dreams: winning a third straight Olympic gold medal in the men’s triple jump, breaking the event’s nearly 26-year-old world record, stretching the boundaries of human performance. But now, as he coped with the reality that he would be watching the Tokyo Games from home, he was feeling the full swirl of sad emotions.
“My heart was with the Olympics,” he said.
When he answered the phone, he heard the familiar voice of Will Claye, Taylor’s one-time college teammate and the man he had so often edged for Olympic titles and world championships.