Australian high jumper Nicola Olyslagers is soaring into the World Athletics Championships with a season-best clearance, a Diamond League title in her pocket and the thrill of revisiting her launch pad to success.
Olyslagers claimed the first of her two Olympic silvers at Tokyo National Stadium during the COVID-delayed 2020 Games, giving a boost to locked-down Aussies watching live from home.
There were no fans in the stadium due to COVID restrictions but Olyslagers felt the support in Australia, saying it propelled her to a then-personal best (PB) 2.02 metres as she went runner-up behind Russian Mariya Lasitskene.
"There's something really powerful about having all of your community cheering for you behind the scenes and being able to see it live," the 28-year-old told Reuters.
"It pushed me to get to 2.02, which, in my body shape back then, that was incredible.
"When I think about the shape I'm in now compared to four years ago, it's completely advanced.
"So it really fills me with hope, thinking: 'It's happened before. Why can't it happen again?'"
There is little reason to think it would not given Olyslagers's form, having produced a new PB of 2.04m to win the Diamond League event in Zurich a few weeks ago.
That mark stands as the season's best, slightly ahead of Ukraine's world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh (2.02m), who edged Olyslagers for Olympic gold in Paris last year.
Olyslagers is confident she can beat her PB, which is 6cm short of Mahuchikh's world record, but jokes that her long-time coach Matt Horsnell has banned her from even thinking about numbers when competing at Tokyo.
Instead, Olyslagers will do as she has long done as a devout Christian - leave it in God's hands.
"Every time I do this it's joy," she said of jumping.
"This is the highest form of worship that I can give today because it costs me something.
"I only compete 10 times a year and every one of those times it surprises me the joy I feel.
"Even if I miss the bar, I go, 'Wow, that was awesome.'
"So it causes me to just keep going."
The start of a new Olympic cycle often sees athletes take stock, work on new things and then plot their way back to a podium.
Since Paris, Olyslagers has packed a lot in while enjoying time away from training.
She bought a house with her husband Rhys, got a dog and discovered with surprise that she can balance civilian life with the hard-nosed discipline of being a high performance athlete.
It helps that she lives and trains on the Central Coast, a sleepy idyll of sandy beaches and national parks an hour up the road from Sydney.
She does gym work in her coach's garage twice a week and pops down to the local track where she has been going for 20 years.
Training on sand is a great way to strengthen feet for high jump, says Olyslagers.
"It's very basic what we do, like where we train. But I love that because you have to bring your imagination into it," she says.
"It's not like I'm hidden away. I'm dodging people going to the beach whilst hopping up the stairs.
"It feels like a holiday most of the time I’m training at home."
Apart from Mahuchikh, one of her strongest rivals at Tokyo will be Australian teammate Eleanor Patterson, a regular companion on competition podiums.
The 2022 world champion, Patterson took bronze at the Paris Olympics and the world indoors silver behind Olyslagers at Nanjing, China in March.
The pair competed as juniors in their early teens and never grow tired of sharing the limelight in Australian athletics.
"When she wins, it feels like a win for me as well," said Olyslagers.
"The podium is big enough for three people, right?"