Cordell Tinch goes into the World Athletics Championships as a medal favourite in the 110 metres hurdles but he would not be in Tokyo at all but for a decision to get back on the track three years ago.
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The American always had athletic talent but he gave up first a football scholarship and then a shot at Division I track and field at the University of Minnesota, and by late 2022 was a cellphone salesman in Green Bay.
Offered a second chance at the Division II programme at Pitt State, Tinch was still not sure he had made the right decision to go back to school and compete in athletics.
"When we went to our first meet in Washburn, in Kansas, when the gun went off, that's when I knew I'm back where I'm supposed to be," he told reporters on the eve of the world championships on Friday.
"It was just kind of, once we turned that page, everything just fell into place."
Tinch impressed enough to turn professional in 2024 but he hit a rough patch after mid-season surgery and missed out on a spot in the US team for the Paris Olympics.
This season, however, the 25-year-old has dominated the high hurdles and his sizzling 12.87 seconds at the Shanghai-Keqiao Diamond League in May made him the joint fourth-fastest man of all time with 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles.
Tinch backed that up with a time of 12.92 in the Diamond League Final in Zurich, his last outing before heading to Tokyo.
Landing a gold medal at his first global championships will still be a big ask, however, especially as he will need to get in front of his teammate Grant Holloway to do it.
Olympic champion Holloway will be gunning for his fourth straight world title and has proved time and again that he has the temperament for the big occasion.
Tinch's journey to the big stage has been very different from Holloway's but he does not regret the diversions he took along the way.
"I don't think that I make it to where I am now if I don't take that time to step away from athletics," Tinch added.
"Just kind of stepping away from the sport to find myself, that was the biggest thing that I needed to do. I think I needed all of that in order to have the mentality that I do now of knowing where I was and knowing where I want to be.
"So going home and working in paper factories and cellphone stores and moving companies, it was all fun. But at the same time, I think that finding myself was the biggest part of all of that, because I don't think I was a very happy person.
"So to be able to come back to the sport and see how much I missed it was really, really big for me, and then great things have been happening ever since I took that step and believed in myself."