There are always moments from the early career of legendary champions where their step towards greatness develops.
How fitting for Ukraine triple jumper Olha Saladukha that hers came at the European Athletics Championships, a competition she has made her own.
As Saladukha prepares for the latest defence of her European crown, let us wind the clock back to 2006.
She was 23 and had flirted with podium places, finishing fifth at the IAAF World Junior Championships in 2002 and fourth at the European Athletics U23 Championships in 2005.
She needed only one jump to make it to the final of the Europeans in Gothenburg the following summer, clearing 14.06m, and here the story begins.
With her fourth jump in the final, Saladukha landed at 14.38m, a personal best. In that split second was the evidence of a champion in the making - hitting her peak for the season at the season’s biggest event.
Ten years on, Saladukha is the greatest triple jumper in the history of the European Athletics Championships. She is the only competitor - man or woman - to have won this gold medal three times in a row, let alone becoming world champion (2011) and European indoor champion (2013) within that decade.
Her first title was in Barcelona 2010 when she won with 14.81m, nailing gold in the second round, before defending it in style in Helsinki two years later in the best possible fashion.
Once more at the European Athletics Championships, Saladukha broke her personal best - this time landing at 14.99m, and achieving it in the first round.
It was a stunning start. The rest were left playing catch-up and she could not be caught.
Saladukha's hat-trick was sealed in the Letzigrund Stadium two years ago with a second round 14.73m, this time in a closer competition as Russia’s Yekaterina Koneva jumped 14.69m.
This summer she is third on the European rankings with 14.40m from Birmingham last month, 23 centimetres behind Greece’s Paraskevi Papahristou who tops the list.
But Saladukha will not be worried about that. Her 14.99m from Helsinki remains her best-ever jump and with the atmosphere of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam next week, this supreme championship performer will know exactly how to deliver.
OLHA SALADUKHA AT THE EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Gothenburg 2006
Triple Jump Final (Aug 9)
1. Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS) 15.15m
2. Hrisopiyi Devetzi (GRE) 15.05m
3. Anna Pyatykh (RUS) 15.02m
4. Olha Saladukha 14.38m
Barcelona 2010
Triple Jump Final (July 31)
1. Olha Saladukha 14.81m
2. Simona La Mantia (ITA) 14.56m
3. Svetlana Bolshakova (BEL) 14.55m
Helsinki 2012
Triple Jump Final (June 29)
1. Olha Saladukha 14.99m PB
2. Patricia Mamona (POR) 14.52m
3. Yana Borodina (RUS) 14.36m
Zurich 2014
Triple Jump Final (Aug 16)
1. Olha Saladukha 14.73m
2. Yekaterina Koneva (RUS) 14.69m
3. Irina Gumenyuk (RUS) 14.46m