The fourth best doctor in the world, were it possible to determine such a ranking, would surely feel pretty good about herself.

The fourth best swimmer, sprinter or race walker, on the other hand, is left to wonder, ruefully one would think, what it feels like to hold an Olympic or world championship medal in his hands.

Evan Dunfee was just such a man at Rio 2016, when a collision with a Japanese competitor knocked Dunfee off stride and off the Olympic podium in the final kilometre of a gruelling 50km race walk; and a similar fate befell him in 2023 at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, when the Richmond, B.C. native finished fourth in the 20km walk, 16 seconds off the podium, and fourth in the 35km event five days later, again 16 seconds away from bronze.