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“Luckily, I was patient, and things finally worked out and things clicked, and when they clicked, they really clicked,” he said.

Leading up to the Rio Olympics, he relocated from Bloomington to Toronto so he could work more closely with Huntoon on a daily basis. Drouin amended his technique, speeding up and taking longer strides toward the bar. But he began feeling back pain in January, so he cut short his indoor season. After jumping 7–6 at Qatar in early May, he learned the diagnosis of the two fractures but did not reveal the condition publicly.

There were days he wondered if he would jump in Rio de Janeiro. Over time, his condition improved. He met with a sports psychologist for the first time. Then, less than a month before the Olympic final, he jumped 7–9¾, beating top rival Barshim. It was Drouin’s highest jump in twenty-seven months, since his Canadian record in Des Moines. He did not raise the bar, so he ended that meet without missing once. That is called a clean sheet, and few keep it as clean as Drouin.