Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe's podium aim

Olympic medals have always been decided by milliseconds and fingernails, but it was Dave Brailsford who introduced the world to the concept of ‘marginal gains’.

Brailsford was the man elevated to guru status after supposedly revolutionising British cycling with his theory that a collection of little 1% improvements would inevitably add up to bigger and better things. His was a theory that covered every base.

No detail was considered too small or insignificant.