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“If I was sitting down, trying to stand back up was pretty agonizing,” he says. “If I was ever bent over trying to get my back straight, I looked like I was 80-years-old, I would have to put both hands on my back and slowly straighten up. It was pretty rough for a while.”

So rough, in fact, that Drouin underwent an MRI in early May in search of the reason for pain so great he could barely jump. Much to his horror, the scan revealed a double stress fracture that would jeopardize his chances of competing in Rio, where he hoped to upgrade the bronze medal he won in 2012.

The doctor gently said he would advise Drouin to shut it down for the season if not for the Rio Games.

“But given it was an Olympic year, I wasn’t going to do that or at least I wasn’t going to do it yet,” Drouin says. “I was going to at least try to exhaust all my options first.”

The best option for a stress fracture is rest and lots of it, so Drouin quietly took three weeks off from training and competition. He religiously attended chiropractic appointments and refused to dwell on his bad luck.

“There were a few moments where I was really nervous,” says his personal coach, Jeff Huntoon. “I felt — no, I hoped — that he would be in good form once we got to Rio.”

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS

In some ways, the diagnosis was a relief. Finally, Drouin had an explanation for why a trans-continental flight felt like an exercise in torture.

“It was definitely pretty rough the first couple of days after getting off the plane,“ said Drouin, who routinely flies around the world to compete. “I had to be pretty proactive about getting up a lot and stretching it and making sure I didn’t get too stiff.”