Brazil is expected to win 20 to 30 medals at the Rio 2016 Games, perhaps 10 golds, and its top hope for an Olympic title in track and field is pole vaulter Fabiana Murer.
Murer, though, can only associate heartbreak with her two previous Olympic experiences.
The former gymnast entered the Beijing 2008 Games as the third-ranked pole vaulter in the world for the year and easily became the first Brazilian to qualify for an Olympic women’s pole vault final (the event debuted at Sydney 2000).
But Murer could not find one of her poles during the Beijing final — the one she aimed to use to clear 4.