With one leg longer than the other, a dodgy back and a hip issue, the chances of Harry Hepworth winning an Olympic medal were far fetched.
But the youngster of the British team vaulted his way to a surprise bronze on Sunday ahead of his world champion teammate Jake Jarman in the process.
Hepworth had been diagnosed with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, which halts the growth of the hip bone, at the age of five and the hyperactive child was ordered to not to play any sport for three years.
He recovered, took up gymnastics and immediately shone despite a four-centimetre differential between the length of his legs, and, more recently, despite the fact he suffered a stress fracture in his back in February. It stopped him from vaulting for nearly a month, not that it showed during the competition.
“To come away with a medal I don’t even have the words for it right now,” he said. “But it’s just the start.”
At a time where Max Whitlock, the elder statesman of the team is bowing out of the sport, Hepworth is one of a number of rising stars in the set-up.
His father was in the stands to watch him and he admitted he could hear him shouting but couldn’t make out the words.
He now plans to celebrate by getting his driving licence. As he put it, “If I can get a bronze medal, I should be able to pass my test.”
Jarman had been one of the favourites for the vault gold but admitted he had been struggling for weeks with his second vault. He landed it but took a step back, was marked down and dropped to fourth and just outside the medals in the process.
And yet it was still a first vault medal of a British man at any Olympics, whose score of 14.949 put him behind gold medallist Carlos Edriel Yulo and Artur Davtyan, of Armenia.
No Filipino male had ever won an Olympic gold before yesterday, now it has two courtesy of Edriel Yulo, who was awarded a house as a reward for the first gold. It was unclear what might lie in wait for the second.
There was disappointment, though for Becky Downie on the uneven bars.
Downie had wept when she entered the arena for the first qualification competition after the ordeal she has undergone to get to her third Olympics 16 years after her first.
Her brother died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition just before the Olympic trials for Tokyo. And she was one of the most senior gymnasts to speak out in the abuse row that overshadowed the sport in Britain.
She revealed weight shaming leading to injuries and insults, and also faced online abuse following her decision to speak out.
But come the final, having started well, she fell off the high bar and to her knees to end her medal hopes at the age of 32.
