He almost gave up the sport he'd spent much of life doing.
But a new training regime and a fresh turn of mind have seen him qualify for the Rio Games.
And he now has gold on the mind.
There's a world of expectation on the shoulders of Australia's top men's long jumper, Fabrice Lapierre.
But when he's on the long jump track, none of that matters.
"There's a million things going through my mind. A million things. I'm thinking I want to jump far, I'm thinking about things I've done in the past, I'm thinking about growing up, what I did when I was young. I think about everything. It's kind of an emotional rollercoaster."
The crowd claps Lapierre in and he begins his sprint approach.
"The best feeling is those last few strides when you're at your top speed and you're about to take off. That feeling is awesome. And when you take off you already know when it's going to be a big jump."
Lapierre dominated the Australian Athletics Championships meet earlier this year to qualify for the Rio Games - jumping 8.27 metres.
That would have been enough to win silver at the London Olympics.
But it hasn't all been smooth sailing for the 32-year-old Mauritian-born athlete.
Injury marred Lapierre's performance at the Beijing Olympics where he finished 16th and he missed out on the team for London altogether.
He says he even came close to giving up long jumping.
"A couple of years ago I didn't care about the sport. I didn't not train, but I honestly didn't care. You could almost say I didn't want to be there. I had no care in the world about athletics."
But he says family support and a new coach and new training base in the United States proved the difference.
"And I talked to my new coach and he told me the same thing, you've got great potential you've just got to change your life up, and make huge changes and if you do that, you've still got a shot."
Australia's chef de mission for the Rio Games, Kitty Chiller, has paid tribute to Lapierre's resilience in the face of injury and disappointment.
"It's special when we select anyone onto an Olympic team or when someone qualifies for an Olympic team but more especially so when it's someone that's had a lot of challenges in their career, injuries and other challenges. To see someone like Fabrice do so outstandingly well that he has this season, a silver medal at the world indoors just a couple of weeks ago and now coming out here and winning the national championship in another Rio qualifier, it's fantastic."
Lapierre says he's now jumping with a renewed passion after a strong 12 months in the sandpit.
He's now firmed as one of Australia's brightest Olympic medal hopes.
And he says there's no reason he can't jump a personal best in Rio.
"Hopefully by Rio I'm in peak form and jumping the medal winning distances, like 8.50, something like that. So that's what I'm going to be aiming for, just steadily each meet. 8.30, 8.40, just keep going."
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