Marie-Josée Ta Lou has often been unlucky on days when she needed to be perfect.
At the 2016 Olympics, Ta Lou, a 34-year-old sprinter from the West African nation of Ivory Coast, missed the women’s 100-meter medal stand by just seven-thousandths of a second. Days later, she lost out on a medal by a single place yet again, finishing fourth in the 200 meters.
Five years later, Ta Lou headed into the women’s 100-meter final at the Tokyo Olympics with the third-fastest seed time. Ta Lou said she was in the best shape of her life, but she dealt with stomach issues beginning in the semifinals. She grunted and grimaced through the 100-meter final as runners pulled ahead of her. She finished fourth again.
In a sport in which the Olympics and the World Championships are paramount — and in a race in which runners have to execute flawlessly for just under 11 seconds — a minuscule misstep can be the difference between winning a gold medal and missing the podium altogether, becoming a global superstar or fading to a forgotten speedster.
Ta Lou has the eighth-fastest time ever run by a woman over 100 meters (10.72 seconds). Yet, she has no gold medals to show for it.
The Tokyo Olympics was a breaking point. Ta Lou called her fiancé in tears and told him she would be retiring.
“At…
