The night before the women's 400-meter final, Allyson Felix was afraid.
"I'm afraid of letting people down. Of letting myself down," she wrote in an Instagram post. "... But right now I've decided to leave that fear behind."
Friday in Tokyo, Felix won a bronze medal in the event, becoming the most decorated female Olympian in track and field history. It was a milestone victory for a woman who has defied the odds to stay at the top of the sport.
But Felix's radical actions in advance of her fifth and final Olympics meant she had already won before she even got to the starting block.