Christian Taylor stares toward the sand pit, breathes, steps back and glances down at his feet before sprinting down the triple jump runway. Inside his shoes, the number 18.30 is written.
“I put it on the inside because the [broadcast] camera will show the outside of the shoes,” Taylor said. “The inside is my personal thing.”
On Aug. 27, Taylor hopped, skipped and jumped 18.21 meters, or 59 feet, 9 inches, to win the World Championship at the Bird’s Nest, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Stadium.
It was the second-longest triple jump of all time, a little more than a cigarette’s length shy of the 20-year-old world record — 18.